Conservator salvages murals and mementos from DeGrazia's fire-damaged Mission in the Sun

[Ptah]

With each stroke of her wide painter’s brush, more and more dried, coarse dirt is pushed aside, revealing a new layer with every motion.

Wisps of dust hang in the air as, little by little, a small, round urn comes into the light in the now-blackened chamber of the adobe mission built in 1952 by famed artist Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia.

In her right hand, art conservator Charlie Burton, passes her brush back and forth all around the urn. Nearby, she keeps a scooper that is normally used to pick up cat litter. It’s at the ready to sift through the dirt and separate any artifact that is hidden from view.

It is early December and for the first time since the fire, which devastated the chapel last Memorial Day, May 29, the urn has been unearthed.


http://tucson.com/news/local/conservator-salvages-murals-and-mementos-from-degrazia-s-fire-damaged/article_3402896b-358d-5e45-a059-ae79796e776d.html