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- Written by Lynda Hudzick Lynda Hudzick
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A Spark that Ignited
February 2004 issue
NAMPA Award: Second Place, Profile
Lynda Hudzick
If it could speak, the former public library building at 399 N. Hanover St. in Elizabethtown would have quite a story to tell.
Originally built as a church and then serving as the local town library, the building is now enjoying a renewed life as the home of the Carli International Institute for the Arts.
Othmar Carli, who currently resides with his wife in York, was born in Austria not long before World War II. As a child, Carli said that a neighbor who was a pattern maker sparked his interest in art.
“He taught me how to make little models of houses and people — there was a joke that no tree in the neighborhood was safe from me carving into it,” he said.
“Hitler invaded when I was 6 years old, and I do have some difficult memories. You either made it or you didn’t, but God was looking out for me. He had a special plan in mind for me, I think.”
Carli explained that after the war, anyone with the necessary skills or talents got jobs repainting and rebuilding, and that’s how he got his formal training and began working on churches.
His skills of restoration have become uniquely focused on sacred art, such as murals, paintings of religious figures, sculpture, and restoring the intricate decoration of the building itself. The oldest church he worked on was consecrated in the year 940.
“I’ve done maybe 10 churches in my life, but remember, it takes a very long time to complete the job,” he said. “I’ve been working on a church in New Jersey now for 11 years.
“Most of the churches are 45-65 feet high, and I spend a lot of my time up on scaffolding at those heights. Sometimes I will have to remove 2 inches of plaster and restore the painting underneath, making sure nothing gets damaged.”
After spending so much time climbing on scaffolding, there was at least one close call that Carli remembers well.
“Once I fell from 60 feet of scaffolding but grabbed on and was able to pull myself up before I got to the concrete below. My guardian angel was there that day. Of course, the fall doesn’t really hurt; it’s the sudden stop, you know.”
Carli has taught others the art of restoration, including a group of students from Lancaster Catholic High School.
“Two years ago, I took six students with me to work on a church in Harrisburg, and it was a difficult job,” he said. “Someone back in the ’70s had washed that mural with Ivory soap and left a film from the soap, plus the debris from years of candles burning. The most important part of any restorer’s job is cleaning, and that’s what we did.
“The students did very well, and, in fact, one of them has now gone on to university to study restoration.”
Although he enjoys restoring the artwork of others, he is an artist in his own right, having had works displayed in 12 international exhibits, including shows in Vienna and Italy. He has worked and taught in Europe, India, and all across the United States.
So how did he end up in Elizabethtown?
“My wife said that I work all over the world, why not do something for our own country?” he said. “I wanted to open a studio, a place where artists could come together to work and learn. I looked around for four years, but nothing was suitable — everything I saw needed too much work.
“Then the realtor found this building, and I really liked it because it was so big and it used to be a church. After spending half of my life inside churches, I like the space.”
Not only was a large, open space important to him, but also the floors of the structure had to be incredibly strong to support the two large printing presses he has brought with him.
“These presses were originally used to print National Geographic magazine, so they are very high quality,” he said. “I did study the structure here before we moved in, but I knew that when this was a library, these floors were able to hold the many tons of books that were here.”
Using the presses, Carli now works with local artists, teaching them to make original prints of their own artwork. He is eager to explain the art of printmaking to visitors and enjoys demonstrating how the huge presses work.
“I don’t do photographic prints,” he said. “In Europe, prints are nearly always made using hand-cut and -etched plates. There are fewer prints of artwork made this way, which does make each one more valuable.”
Carli said that as he cuts back on work that requires him to travel, he is enjoying spending more time at his studio in Elizabethtown and looking forward to more visitors from the community who are curious about art.
“I am here most days and do stay over a few nights a week,” he said. “My associate refers to this as my sandbox, because it is where I am the happiest. But I will always be working, because I have at least 150 years of work waiting for me!
“I believe that one doesn’t die of old age; one dies of boredom. And I am never bored.”