Title: The Maria
Madonna
Medium: Oil and metal
leaf (copper and composition gold) with Austrian crystals
on three hinged birch wood artisan panels.
Size: Center
34”x22.5” Side 13 ½”x 10
¾”. Appx total size when open 36" x 36"
Year: 1996/97
Image
Inspiration:
An ex-voto painted in gratitude for the experience of
fertility. The large, powerful center panel typifies the
feminine gifts of birth, conception and the growing of life.
The painting was created in gratitude for the experience of
fertility and to acknowledge a powerful dream asking for
atonement to ensure that life continues to flourish.
Center Panel
The Goddess-like Madonna rests below a golden, New Mexican
sun. A vision of Mary or a vision of a Native healer. A mixture
of the symbols of the original people on the American continent
and Euro American symbols weave across this altar to create a
vision of fertility and abundance. The triangular design above
the Madonna is the Ortiz mountain range in Colorado. In her
hands she cradles a pear (European symbol for a uterus). A
glittering vessel adorned with a swirling black floral design
and filled with copper leaf flowers is flanked by ancient
Indian pictograph symbols (like ovaries housing the genetic
material of all peoples). The Madonna’s brown eyes look
with love towards unborn souls and ideas.
Left Panel
A woman harvests flowers representing male fertility. Her
beauty and poise reveal the female creative power women share.
Right Panel
A red horse orbits a uterus bathed in soft light and filled
with potential life. The horse’s journey represents the
gestation of each new child and the spiritual gestation of
human kind.
Back Panels
Copper leaf birds and flowers adorn the side panels while a
black vase, copper bird and flowers fill the center. An oil
under-painting in dark blues and other tones is barely visible
under the metal leaf.
Purchase this art or commission Cristina to create a retablo celebrating your gifts.
