“As a child I was always trying to build things with my hands.” To satisfy his desire to make things and to keep her young son occupied while she was busy with household matters, his mother bought him a huge supply of popsicle sticks. Ulises Juarez Luna advanced from those hours spent constructing popsicle castles and bridges to become a master craftsman of boutique furniture and ecclesial furnishings.

His first wood sculpting project was in response to a request to make a bandurria, a traditional Spanish stringed instrument. “I found in my city a block of hardwood packaging, similar to what you find for shipping pallets. With this I made the main part, the neck. I used a borrowed rasp, one sawhorse, and my left hand as a clamp. It was an impressive piece of art.”

Ulises Juarez Luna was born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1981, the great grandson of Syro-Lebanese immigrants to South America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He attended the elementary and high school associated with Cordova’s St. George Orthodox Church of the Antiochian Archdiocese of Argentina. As a teenager he recognized a stirring in his heart to serve Christ and became deeply involved with parish ministries. He taught church school at St. George Church and later served as its youth coordinator while pursuing his education at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC).

“I come from a long line of Argentine artists and artisans. My passion for woodcrafts started in early childhood. I went on to receive a formal education in industrial design at one of Argentina’s top academies of design.” At UNC he studied industrial design specializing in prototypes and graphic design oriented to products. He also studied furniture design, Byzantine Church embellishment, and mechanical design.

Dn. Damian, as he is known since his ordination to the diaconate in 2019, now designs and builds hardwood iconostasis, bishop’s thrones, analogion stands, and other liturgical furnishings for Orthodox churches.

 

Artistic Influences
Inspired by Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements, and particularly influenced by the work of Sam Maloof (1916-2009), a prominent figure in the postwar American craft tradition, Dn. Damian’s wood furniture designs are serviceable pieces of sculpture. “In my studio I design and handcraft custom furniture. My experience as a designer and craftsman enables me to create unique results that are still traditional in form.” True to Maloof’s principles, Dn. Damian’s creations fulfill both ergonomic function and satisfy the calling of beauty. “My goal is to create long-lasting furniture that accentuates the natural beauty of the wood.”

Beauty and Function
John Ruskin’s (1819-1900) despairing analysis of Victorian art and culture as soulless and mechanical, together with the philosophy of designer and craftsman William Morris (1834-1896), launched an artistic revolution in the mid-19th century. Arts and Crafts was a practical protest to the sterility and repetitiveness of mechanized mass production attending the Industrial Revolution. It was Morris’ conviction that handcraftsmanship humanized the making of everything from furniture to stained glass, embroidery, printed wallpaper, floor tile and jewelry.

Handcraftsmanship gives moral purpose to the fashioner as does the integrity of materials impart timeless worth to the artefact. A thing must be what it appears to be, composed of honest materials not disposable imitations that repel rather than invite human touch. Who can love a plastic flower? This is hardly an empty jeremiad when we consider the enormity of mimicking plastics that gorge our landfills. Between 1950 and 2017, it is estimated that 9.2 billion metric tons of polymers were produced and discarded. Paul Kingsnorth in our own time has called the revival of handcraftsmanship “a way of learning how to belong to the earth again in the age of the Machine.”

Beauty as Principle 
In all his creations, Dn. Damian embraces the aesthetic necessity of functionality expressed beautifully according to Morris’ dictum: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

 

The Church as Purpose
For Dn. Damian this especially applies to furnishings for Orthodox churches. He primarily takes on projects that have a liturgical purpose or which serve the needs of parish life. He is currently working on an iconostasis design for the chapel in the new Arts Center Building at St. Tikhon Monastery in Waymart Pennsylvania. The arts center building designed by Andrew Gould houses St. Tikhon’s Art Institute comprised of both the School of Iconography and the Music Program.

Dn. Damian’s experience in designing iconostasis is broad and varied, from massive stationary structures and extensions to the elegant simplicity of mobile frameworks.

 

Man’s heart devises his way, but the LORD directs his steps.
Dn. Damian’s systems engineering studies at UNC focused on system analysis and networks qualified him for a full-time position as administrative assistant to the priest at St. George Church, and as one of St. George School’s administrators. Notably, he collaborated with Metropolitan +SILOUAN Muci on a number of projects.

His goal was to attend seminary at the University of Balamand in Lebanon after completing his studies.

Plans changed when the future deacon met Katherine Hale from Kentucky, a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to study abroad in Argentina. The two were married in 2012 and the young couple moved to Bowling Green where he began serving at Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, first as an altar server and then as a subdeacon under the guidance of Fr. Michael Nasser, who is now the Spiritual Formation Director for St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

Before ordained as a subdeacon, he remotely completed and received a three-year Diploma of Religious Studies in Orthodox Theology (SOFIA) from St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology of the University of Balamand. He also completed a two-year Diploma in Orthodox Biblical Interpretation (CBB) through St. John of Damascus Institute. Taking the name Damian, he was ordained to the Holy Diaconate in 2019 by His Grace Bishop +ANTHONY Michaels.

 

Service to St. Andrew Antiochian Orthodox Church
Dn. Damian and his wife Katherine moved to Lexington, Kentucky in 2020 where their son Elias was born in 2022. Both Dn. Damain and Katherine are a valuable resource for St. Andrew Antiochian Orthodox Church. Under the leadership of  V. Rev. Fr. Thomas Gallaway, Dn. Damian provides liturgical support. Katherine is a chanter and instructor of classes for parish members who want to learn the basics of Byzantine tones and their place in the liturgy.

The community of St. Andrew not only benefits from Dn. Damian’s enrichment of worship but is also blessed with his craftsmanship. From a recently removed white pine that was dangerously close to the church building, he salvaged large portions of tree heart to make benches to place around the property for parishioners to relax and engage in fellowship after Liturgy.

Gathering wood for his many projects is something Dn. Damian has practiced for years going back to his creation of a bandurria from packing material retrieved from the streets of Córdoba. When he finds available wood suitable for one of his projects, he reclaims it for an “impressive piece of art”. He personally designs a project, selects and processes materials, builds, finishes, delivers and installs. “Sometimes my clients do not believe I was able to do this type of furniture. I’ve even heard it said, ‘your hands do not look like you did this work’”.

After felling, it was routine work for Dn. Damian to harvest board slabs from the tree that was precariously leaning towards St. Andrew Church.

Rough planks are now drying in Dn. Damian’s workshop kiln waiting for Spring when the great sentinel pine on Higbee Mill Road in Lexington will be resurrected as beautifully sculpted benches uniquely designed, built, delivered and installed to the joy of St. Andrew parishioners.

As Sam Maloof has said, “The reverence that the object maker has for the materials, for the shape, and for the miracle of his skill transcends to God, the Master Craftsman, the Creator of all things, who uses us, our hands, as His tools to make these beautiful things.”

 

Man of many arts
Music has always been a part of Dn. Damian’s life. The hands that craft bishop’s thrones also play piano, guitar, bass, mandolin, and of course, the bandurria. “I directed a Spanish folk music band for eight years in Argentina. Recently I composed, played all the instruments and recorded the music for an independent movie filmed in Glasgow, Kentucky which will be promoted in 2026.”

For his reverence for the Diakonia and the talents he brings as master craftsman and musician, Dn. Damain is greatly loved by the community of St. Andrew the First Called Orthodox Church of Lexington, Kentucky.

 

Sources

Sam Maloof. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved December 27, 2025, from AZQuotes.com: Web sites: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/795451

Kingsnorth, P. (2025, December 17). Six ways to resist the Machine. Plough. https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/six-ways-to-resist-the-machine

Global plastic production with projections, 1950 to 2060″. Our World In Data. April 13, 2023. Retrieved January 6,2025.

Dn. Damain Jaurez Luna website:http://protos.zyns.com Email: ulyssesfurniture@gmail.com