Explore the Artist of this artwork, Father Hesburgh and Father Joyce.
Lou Cella, graduate of Illinois State University ‘85, has been exposed to the arts his entire life. After dabbling in graphic design after college, Cella decided to move into three-dimensional art, and enrolled in classes at the Rotblatt-Amrany Fine Art Studio, where he then began working after completing his classes. Cella continues to make art out of the studio today. To see a more extensive list of Cella’s work see external links below.
Cella was honored to have won the competition to design the Fathers Theodore Hesburgh and Edmund Joyce statue for the University of Notre Dame. Cella has been a lifelong Notre Dame fan and often visited his brother and two resident priest uncles on campus (Father James Banas and Reverend Leonard Banas). Cella himself said, “When you have two people who are intertwined with the ND community, you get to know a lot about the campus. I had a personal connection to the school, and even though I didn’t attend Notre Dame, it’s kind of in my DNA.” 
When he was in college at Illinois State University, Cella remembered watching Father Hesburgh’s 60-minute interview. “I was about 20 years old at the time and I was really struck by the man,” said Cella. “I had read his book and I had a connection to him. As you read his book, you’re reading about interactions with people going back as far as Pope Paul VI and Martin Luther King Jr, and the list never ends.” Cella does a lot of sculptures of baseball players, and said that while he is proud of every statue he has contributed to, he believes his work with Father Hesburgh was particularly unique. “When you do something like Father Hes who gives people opportunities to have better lives, it’s really special,” Cella reminisced nearly twelve years after the statue’s dedication.
Cella was able to meet Father Hesburgh on many occasions before making the statue, saying, “We would go to the games and then go to dinner at Corby Hall with our uncles and Father Hes would come.” He remembers the last time he saw Father Hesburgh very distinctly on the night Hesburgh was celebrating his 95th birthday:
‘‘“On that night, I introduced my wife to him. My wife is a very spiritual woman, and he gave her a blessing when he met her. She went up in tears on the spot. That moment was another reflection of how he seemed to always be looking at ways to make people feel like they count, whoever they may happen to be. He had no way of knowing how much something like that would mean to her, both then and now. The holy spirit is very central to our lives and to go and see that sculpture again with my wife after it was built meant even more. It wasn’t just her being proud of her husband, she had a connection to the man.”’’ - Lou CellaCella remembered that during the time he built the sculpture, “it was almost impossible to find someone who didn’t have profound love for Father Hesburgh and who he didn’t mean something to.”
Theodore Hesburgh Lou Cella University of Notre Dame