I have always loved beautiful Madonna artwork. In 1970 I painted two Madonna paintings. (These paintings are included in this gallery—one is in yellow ochre and the other in brown tones.) The Madonna and Child painted in brown was a copy from a card of the “Madonna of the Streets.” I had never fully claimed this painting as the art teacher had done quite a bit of work here and there. I felt it was ½ her art piece. But I loved it and 30 years later, brought it out of the closet to completely re-do and make it totally my expression and my work.

I decided to paint my feelings. The 1970 painting was the perfect canvas size. I knew that I wanted to include some collages of the images that most disturbed me during the Columbine event, for example, the boy dropping out of the window and the children running for their lives up the side of the building surrounded by Swat team members guarding them as they ran. I pasted in words to affirm, in a somewhat cynical way, the changes of modern school-life. In my youth, dropping out of school meant to quit school. It didn’t mean dropping out a window to save one’s life. The education one got was not that of how to escape a school shooting.

These images and words were included in the painting.

Also, I’d experienced much grief over the changes in my own son throughout the years—primarily due to his inability to deal with life’s disappointments and the damage done by drugs. So I added this mother’s sorrow. There is a portion where one can see the shadowed silhouette of a mother holding up a newborn infant (bottom right). Slightly to the left is a happy, smiling and loving young five-year old. Right above that image is my son as a cub scout – filled with ideals. And then to the right of him is an image of my son after an arrest for marijuana possession. His defensive demeanor blocked his own heart.

So my personal and the cultural pain are portrayed amidst the beauty of the Madonna and her child. And she is a modern Madonna—a Mother Goddess rising from the Earth. She is not a Goddess of the sky, an image of patriarchal ideals. Instead she stands in the center of the earth, and the mountains, trees, and land spread out from her robe.

She is a symbol of Hope and Beauty to carry us all through any storms.

I am pleased to share the Millennium Madonna with you.