MARIA, 2012

Ink brush, white gouache  

37 x 26 in. Kunstraum H&H

In Johnny's mind, the story of Jesus' birth is rewriting itself. 

"The hotel manager looked out into the darkness and saw Mary´s white anxious face there. She´s a pretty kid he thought and scared too like her husband says. It´ll be an awful mess if she has a baby on the premises people who can´t afford them shouldn´t have babies anyway but what are you going to do about it? All right he said to Joseph I guess I can find a place for you. See that passageway over there? Well go right on through it and you come to the barn. There´s a manger at the far end.“ 

[…] "I hope very much she doesn´t have her baby here tonight because it´ll upset my guests if she screams and they´re all very highclass people including three Roman congressman. But go ahead.“ 

[…] "Away off in Rome a man in a palace stirred in his sleep. He almost awakened and then drowsed off again wondering in his dreams why he was nervous. In the manger in Betlehem Mary listened to the angels and didn´t seem to feel as happy as when she first saw her child. She stared right through the wise men who had come with presents. She hugged her baby closer. Her eyes were filled with pain and fear for the little baby.“

(From: "Johnny got his gun“, Kensington Publishing Corp.)

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