Father Ann

Meet Father Ann.  I wanted to use the shape of this piece to suggest a nuns habit and added Father in the title to further make that point.  The shape of the head was sculpted in wax and then small pieces of Madrono wood were embedded into the wax to form the boxes or window design.  The same wood was used to shape the base and a copper plate was added to finish it off.  Enough of the wood pieces protruded from the wax to be held in place by a plaster cast formed over the head.  When the wax was melted away various tints of clear resin were poured into the cast.  When sufficient thickness of resin was obtained the plaster cast was ground away leaving the surface shown above.  A great deal of sanding and polishing went on before an oil and wax finish was applied.

Father Ann had a short and eventful exhibition career.  She was accepted in an exhibition in  Tubac, Arizona. A second acceptance came for an exhibition at St. Bernadelle Institution in New Mexico.  The title of the event was "VIVA Guadalupe" and the theme seemed to fit Father Ann perfectly.  I boxed her and sent her to the show with UPS.  When she arrived her neck was broken completely off.  The personnel at the show boxed up the pieces and returned her to me.  What a disappointment.  I had really wanted her to participate in this show which seemed made for her.

I found the theme, "VIVA Guadalupe" rich with Spanish/Catholic history and will share a portion of my Wikipedia research.  Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe, is a title of the Virgin Mary associated with a celebrated pictorial image housed in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Official Catholic accounts state that on the morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw an apparition of a young girl at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City.  Speaking to him in Nahuati, the girl  asked that a church be built at that site in her honer.  From her words, Juan Diego recognized the girl as the Virgin Mary.  Diego told his story to the Spanish Archbishop of Mexico City.  Fray Juan de Zumarraga, who instructed him to return to Tepeyac Hill and ask the "lady" for a miraculous sign to prove her identity.  The first sign was the Virgin's healing Juan's uncle.  Next the Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill.  Although December was very late in the growing season for flowers to bloom, Juan Diego found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico. on the normally barren hilltop.  The Virgin arranged these in his peasant cloak or tilma.  When Juan Diego opened his cloak before Bishop Zumarraga on December 12 the flowers fell to the floor, and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Juan Diego was canonized in 2002, and his tilma is displayed in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most visited Marian shrine in the world.  The representation of the Virgin on the tilma is Mexico's most popular religious and cultural image, and under this title the Virgin has been acclaimed as "Queen of Mexico", "Patroness of the Americas", "Empress of Latin America", and "Protectress of Unborn Children".  Under this title, she was also proclaimed "Heavenly Patroness". Note the head detail of this religious and cultural image shown below.

        
The final chapter of this art piece came after it had been repaired to original condition and was sold to a Florida collector.  I hope Father Ann is helping celebrate her Florida home.


*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>