Pink Saturday: My Nativity

This is my favorite ever nativity scene. I made it for an art swap in 2005, and though I was sorely tempted to keep it, I did send it to another artist, who in turn had sent in a delightful nativity painting, which I sent to the artist who had made a plush nativity scene, which is now adorning my china cabinet.

I made this out of a hard book. The kind on which children teethe. I lightly filed the shiny surfaces, gessoed it, and then embellished it mostly with paint, and decoupage techniques.

As you can tell, I was in a bit of a Frida Kahlo fan-girl mode at the time. No, I couldn't resist casting her as an angel, complete with a pinko-commie dress. You can't see it clearly, but the dress has tiny jewel embellishments.

If you look at the wing on the left, you'll see a patch of velcro. That is so the whole nativity book could be closed.
On each page I illustrated different parts of the tale of the birth of Christ. Here I used clippings from an art book I'd deconstructed to to show the annunciation and the marriage of Mary and Joseph, complete with renaissance "shotgun wedding" artwork. I also included the lyrics to some of my favorite carols on each of the pages.

On the page with the typical nativity scene, I included my favorite carol.

Twas in the Moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled, when Mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead. Before their light the stars grew dim and wandring hunters heard the hymn: Jesus your king is born - Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found. A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped His beauty round; but as the hunter braves drew nigh,
The angel song rang loud and high: Jesus your king is born- Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
I also illustrated, as above, the early life of Jesus, and included (not pictured) an abstract visitation of the Magi.
Here you can see the back of the nativity board book.

I hope you enjoyed this, I had a lot of fun making it, and from what I hear, it was a well received re-purposing of a baby book.

For more of Beverly's Pink Saturday, head on over to How Sweet The Sound.