November 2nd and November 3rd POSTING

Hello, my name is Myrna Migala, and I think of myself as an internet artist, selling art on Ebay and Etsy, and a web site I maintain, located on the internet at www.ACEOartcards.com

My day to blog is November 3, but since I won't be near my computer, and no one posted today, I will post this a little early. Let me begin with a November quote, just for fun.

"Thirty days hath November, April, June, and September,
February hath 28 alone, And all the rest have 31".

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So much going on lately, the election, election . . . are you as tired as I am of hearing about it?

This election has me praying for our Country, so naturally it is reflected in my art. Yesterday I painted a 20 x 10" watercolor painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Americas. I plan to donate this picture to a up and coming school auction but I did upload the image to my internet Greeting Card Shop which is located at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/creativecardsbymyrna

The story about the picture is posted here in short and it happened in the year 1531, when this beautiful lady from heaven appeared to a poor Indian. Her picture was imprinted on his tilma to prove to the Bishop that she did indeed appear with a message for the world.

The tilma shows Mary as the God-bearer - she is pregnant with her Divine Son. Since the time the tilma was first impressed with a picture of the Mother of God, it has been subject to a variety of environmental hazards including smoke from fires and candles, water from floods and torrential downpours and, in 1921, a bomb which was planted by anti-clerical forces on an altar under it. There was also a cast-iron cross next to the tilma and when the bomb exploded, the cross was twisted out of shape, the marble altar rail was heavily damaged and the tilma was...untouched! Indeed, no one was injured in the Church despite the damage that occurred to a large part of the altar structure.

In 1977, the tilma was examined using infrared photography and digital enhancement techniques. Unlike any painting, the tilma shows no sketching or any sign of outline drawn to permit an artist to produce a painting. Further, the very method used to create the image is still unknown. The image is inexplicable in its longevity and method of production. It can be seen today in a large cathedral built to house up to ten thousand worshipers. It is, by far, the most popular religious pilgrimage site in the Western Hemisphere.

The watercolor below is my version of this popular vision and now devotion. I hope you like it. If the story intrigues you, you can google "Our Lady of Guadalupe" for more details.