November-December 2023 - Natividad

If the title of our cover artwork, Natividad, evokes the Christmas-pageant version of Jesus’ birth, the painting itself, by Venezuelan artist Edgar Queipo, may fill us with a different sense of wonder.  Where are the choirs of angels, the shepherds with their flocks, and the magi bearing gifts?  Where is the manger with the straw-filled crib?  And where is Joseph, the father of the newborn Christ child?

In this colorful painting, Queipo re-envisions the traditional Christmas story and invites us to stretch our own imaginations.  Here, Mary and Jesus are alone in a moonlit dreamscape, their intertwined figures cocooned within a mysterious blue orb.  Their earthbound, circular form echoes that of the heavenly bodies overhead and anchors this triangular composition.

The artist has used directional lines to embellish the Madonna and child and to draw us in for a closer look.  Our eyes follow the strong horizontals of Mary’s arms, hands, and legs that secure her son in a protective embrace, and they return to the pensive gazes of both figures.  Perhaps this is the moment that Mary, contemplating the divinity of her child, “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Lk. 2:19, NIV).

By leaving out some familiar elements of the traditional nativity scene, Queipo has left us space to ponder the miracle of that first Christmas when God incarnate broke into the darkness of our world. This season, may we dwell on the transformative presence of Jesus in our lives.

Cover art courtesy of Edgar Queipo. ©Edgar Queipo. Prints of cover art are available from [email protected]