Free to a good home...

And the winner is...

 

Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery!

What a great honor and delight to present Sisters Linda and Lydia with my artwork!

Our Lady of Guadalupe

A donation of a devotional nature, no kidding, no strings attached.

This portrait belongs in a church, and that's where you come in.

I created this portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe a couple of years ago.

It is a paper mosaic, created from junk mail & Christmas cards. I tried really hard to get the details right.

This photo is not very good, It is very shiny, has a lot of metallic paper, jewels, etc. The canvas is 24x48", it is in a very heavy,gilded and carved wood frame. It is wired, ready to hang. See more photos below...

This piece of art has been on display at three museums:

Arizona Museum for Youth

Springs Preserve Museum

El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe
and

the Coconino Center for the Arts.

I have no intention of selling it.

Based on the work I sell in galleries, a piece of my work this size would sell for over $4000.00 - but remember, I don't want to sell it.

I am donating it - giving it away...to a Catholic Church in Maricopa County...[no offense, Tucson, Flag...etc.] that really, really wants it.
I'll deliver it, or someone from the church can pick it up.  

Free. 

No kidding.

So here's how this will work... 

If you want your church to own it, 

• Comment on the blog - see below, at the very end of this blog, and all the comments you'll see the words post a comment in blue. Click on it!
• You can post anonymously - I don't need your name. 
• Name the church you want me donate this to... 
• The church with the most comments gets it! [Make sure you let your church's admins/clergy know about this... I don't want any trouble!!!] 
• Please make sure you not only give me the correct name and spelling of the church, but the address, contact name at the church or parish, phone # [at least the first comment, so I make sure there are no duplicates].
• This is not a competition between parishes, I just want the church that wants it - to have it.

Comments start now. I will tally the comments up and the church of choice will be announced on Monday, October 25th.

I promise, this is a totally free, no strings attached offer. I will not solicit ANY kind of business or anything from your comments, your emails, etc... I'm not kidding. This is not for publicity, I just want to give this piece of art to the right place. Why am I doing this? I'm nice!

Previous Lives leaking into this one?

I had a recurring dream when I was in high school. The dream was in third person - Instead of seeing out of my eyes, I saw myself. I was an Italian soldier during World War II. I was young, handsome - in uniform. During a skirmish in St. Peter's Square -- "I" was shot in the back. Of course, at the time, I didn't know it was St. Peter's. As if it was a film, I saw myself falling / dying - toward the camera.

I was about to go overseas for the summer, and the dream seemed like a portent - an omen of doom. My friend Sharon & I were heading to Italy after a 2 month stint on a Kibbutz in Israel. When we arrived in St. Peter's, I freaked. That was the location of the dream [the converging lines, the colonnades. So, from that time on, I'm convinced that was a previous life.

I'm into some crazy metaphysical stuff - and had my akashic records read [stick with me]. In this reading, I found that another previous life had been lived as a nun who went into the convent against her will - and one who had taken a vow of silence. This is supposed to explain why I talk too much in this life.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of my weirdness... but as I posted my newest work on my web site, I noticed a theme... a Catholic Saint [from Italy], an Italian opera, an Italian painting... what's going on in my head?

I've always had a thing for images of the Madonna [the first one], golden halos, Russia Icons and women's faces. So, I'm not surprised these elements are showing up in my work. And, the mosaic tradition continues.

I love opera - Italian, of course.
The most beautiful place on earth? Venice... and where I studied the amazing mosaics at St. Marks.

And, with eidetic imagery and art history hanging out together in my brain, artwork I've seen before is finding its way into images I create today.

So, there seems to be a theme happening...?! The newest piece is the beginning of a series of Icons. This one is "St. Catherine of Bologna - Patron Saint of Artist." The top image is entitled "Tosca" and look - I've done Boticelli's Venus 4 times!

A little strange... my background is Hungarian, Jewish, New Yorker. Anyone in the mood for a nice seafood risotto?