For more than 30 years, Michele Bowman has brought new life to old and sacred statues
On a worn worktable in south St. Louis, a misnamed saint is gradually reclaiming her true identity.
For more than a century, parishioners knew the statue as St. Agnes, although Michele Bowman can tell you she’s not Agnes. The 3-foot Mayer-Munich statue from Germany has been a long fixture at All Saints Parish in St. Peters, featured in flowing robes and carrying a sword. Her features have been dulled by time, paint and misidentification.
“St. Agnes is always depicted with a lamb, so I think we’re just going to keep it what it was originally as a martyr,” she said. “I think they had it on record that it was St Agnes. So I think there was a mistake 100-and-something years ago and no one caught it.”
Now in Bowman’s hands, the statue will be brought back to its original palette: violet garments, a veil with greenish undertones and an ochre hem.
Surrounding Bowman at her studio are dozens of statues of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and other saints and angels who are waiting to be resurrected. Angels destined for St. Ambrose Parish in St. Louis are tucked in a corner mid‑surgery, their wings removed and seams exposed. A Sacred Heart statue from St. Patrick in Albia, Iowa, once mistaken for wood because of its many heavy coats of paint, waits for the day he will look “like night and day,” Bowman said.
Nearby, statues from a full-scale restoration project for All Saints are scattered around the studio in various stages of transformation: St. Anne and the child Mary with their garments stripped down to old blues and violets; a tiny spot on St. Elizabeth of Hungary that reveals the deep reddish‑purple hidden beneath layers of paint; and a pair of angels whose garments will once again return to their original shades of rose and blue.
Bowman, a member of St. Cecilia Parish in south St. Louis, has been in the business of restoring religious statues and artwork for more than three decades. She is the owner of Restorations Plus, a south St. Louis-based company that specializes in restoring religious statues and artwork.
Bowman previously worked as a photographer and then had a six-year apprenticeship with conservation architect Ted Wofford, a historical consultant in ecclesiastical buildings, with Artisan Decorators. One of her first large-scale projects was restoring works at the Shrine of St. Joseph Downtown, a place where she continues to attend Mass.
She strives to return statues and church art as closely as possible to their original design, staying true to the color palettes, stencils and materials the artists used. For her, true restoration means uncovering and preserving the original vision, rather than updating pieces to modern tastes. By the design and details, she can easily spot where a statue may have originated: Kaletta Statuary Company (founded in St. Louis), Chicago-based Daprato Rigali Statuary and Mayer-Munich are among some of the most well-known religious art manufacturers.
In addition to restoring statues and other items such as pedestals, altars and niches, Bowman has helped her clients create statues, including reproductions of saints, one-of-a-kind stone carvings and bronze works cast at a foundry. She’s also restored rescued pieces and hand-carved wood statues finished to match existing church art. Her studio handles carving locally and also collaborates with stone and wood artists in Italy.
Bottom line, though, the statues aren’t meant to just look nice, Bowman said. Rather, the beauty she restores them to is there to aid a person’s prayer life and worship experience, she said.
“I remember years ago, before I even got into this, this woman said to me, ‘Oh, you guys all idolize these statues.’ And I was like, ‘No, are you kidding?’” she said. “When I was a little girl, I remember there was a statue of the Blessed Mother in a little grotto area. And I would just sit there and look at that statue, and I just felt so much peace. I could go there when I was really sad, and it always just helped me.”
At St. Cecilia, Bowman is especially drawn to a marble statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “It’s just the most beautiful carving and this feel that you get when you look at Him, it’s just so calming. These statues remind me of God and what I am needing from Him. I guess that’s why whenever you walk into a church, there should be a large crucifix.”
Bowman estimates that she’s done work in more than 60 percent of the churches in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and in other churches outside the area. About 80% of her work involves religious statues and art, with the remainder coming from other non-religious art, including stone, wood, ceramic and earthenware. Others from across the country will ship their pieces to her for refinishing. Requests also come from individuals wanting personal items restored.
On a recent weekday morning, Ken Thornhill stopped by Bowman’s studio with a weighty concrete statue of Our Lady of Fatima that once belonged to his parents. After his father died about a year ago, he couldn’t bring himself to leave the statue behind when the property was sold.
The original paint job, done many years ago by his brother, has faded, and the statue’s features have flattened and chipped. He discovered Bowman’s work online and said he hopes she will bring Our Lady back to life as the centerpiece in his backyard garden.
“It’s going to really look great in my backyard with the waterfall,” said the member of St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville.
All of her work is done by hand, and outside of apprenticing in the early days of her career, Bowman is primarily self-taught. Some modern restoration techniques, such as using a laser to remove layers of paint, may shorten the process, but she believes they can compromise a piece’s longevity and original craftsmanship.
“It’s an old practice, because why not do it the way it’s meant to be done?” she said. “Rather than trying to make it faster — and then, who knows, in 10 years, what will happen to it? All the statutes that I did down at the Shrine of St. Joseph, which would have been more than 36 years ago, are all still in great condition.”
Bowman said she hopes that when someone sees the finished product, they get the same feeling of peace that she feels in her heart.
“Every evening when I go to bed, I say a prayer that I can just continue to do this, because I do love it,” she said.
