As soon as I drew the face I knew it was the right one for my Blessed Mother.
This morning, lying in bed before getting up, I was picturing my Mother Mary and realized she was too big. So when I finally got into my studio this afternoon, the first thing I did was shrink her body to the right size. And when I began working on her face again, it came to me.
There are so many different stories and images of Mother Mary, I feel like she’s expansive enough to be what each of us needs her to be.
My view of her is definitely influenced by Sue Silverstein. It was in Sue’s art room that I first saw a Mother Mary I could relate to. And even though the statue that sits on the counter right next to the sewing machines where I was teaching sewing, looks like so many others I’ve seen throughout my life, there was something different about her.
Maybe not in the way she looks, but in the way she feels.
Sue has a long and close relationship with the Blessed Mother. The way Sue talks about her makes me understand Mother Mary in a way I never did before. “I relate to her being a terrified young girl with a huge task”, Sue told me. “She keeps me sane when life feels out of control.”
So when Sue saw a picture of the face I drew today and said that her expression was “perfect”. I felt even better about it.
By creating my own Mother Mary, I’m finding out who she is and what she means to me.
I think she looks perfect, too!
THanks Nancy.:)
Just Beautiful!!!
THanks Joanne.
This piece is just amazing and inspired. I hope you do more with it. Either make more of them or in some way make it more available to more people. You are so gifted, Maria.
Thank you Claudia. I’ll think about the best form to reproduce the image. Post cards would be a good choice I think.
I think this is one of the most creative and most beautiful of any thing you’re done. I couldn’t imagine how you would use the lace but it came out very beautiful. If I could afford to I’d buy it and give it to Sue. This process shows how religion can be of service to many even when the truth of the religions reality can be doubted.
It’s so true what you say about religion Barbara. It’s only recently that I’ve opened myself up to the idea of Mary, and there is something there for me that I couldn’t find in the rest of the religion.