Unto Us

Depicts the biblical story of Christ's birth. Painting backdrop is based on the town of Crestline, Alabama.

I again was influenced by a show at the Birmingham Museum. The work of William Dunlap
with all the letters and words mixed into a Civil War work made a real impression.

This painting "Unto Us" started out in the oven of color and landscape around Birmingham. I had done a pastel of Crestline Village from the Tot Lot with all its huge red oaks, The Steeple Arts Building, and figures of the mothers and children in the playground in the fall.

A year later before Christmas, I was thinking of the wonderful passage from Isaiah "Unto Us a Child is Born, Unto us a son is given” and decided to use the Crestline background for the theme.

From memory and a few photographs, the pastel was made. I remember dragging out this piece of Masonite each morning for the limited hour I had free, and reading the printed words as I went along.

The Tot Lot became the stable, the Steeple Arts became the Inn where there was no room and from the side of Am South Bank came the three wise men. The stable was visited by ordinary men and Mary and Joseph were inside the little shed with the new baby Jesus. There were many cold mornings outside working and that is reflected in the blue colors. It was the first of a lot of pastels done with words.