Print Details:

• Museum-quality posters made on thick, durable, matte paper.

• Paper is archival and acid-free.

• Unframed prints arrive rolled up in a protective tube.

Frame Details:

• Alder, Semi-hardwood frame

• Black in color

• .75” thick

• Acrylite front protector

• Lightweight

• Hanging hardware included

• Made in the USA

From the artist:

When the shepherds see the newborn Messiah (confirming that their angelic night vision wasn’t just a sleep-deprived hallucination), they deliver the angel’s words to the new family. All are amazed by this pronouncement, except for Mary. She takes it all in, rolling the words over and over in her head, planting them deep in her heart: “Good news . . . great joy . . . all people . . . a savior . . . the Messiah . . . a sign . . . wrapped in cloth . . . lying in a feeding trough.” Why does she ponder these things if she already knew them?

I imagine Mary committing these words to muscle memory; she internalizes them so deeply within herself so that the words won’t leave her—especially when the time comes for her baby son to be tested and tried and executed. Like the baby in her arms, these words become apart of her, filling like breath in her lungs.

I began this piece with a chaos of dark marks, smudging the entire paper black with charcoal. Then, starting from the middle, I began to draw with an eraser, etching the faces of Mary and her baby from the shadows. The result displays mother and child inextricably intertwined as light radiating amidst the darkness.

—Lisle Gwynn Garrity