Let's start from explaining the Virgin Mary was the daughter of the elderly couple of Anna and Joachim and was conceived without original sin. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was solemly proclaimed by Pius IX in 1854. My grandfather taught us that asking favors to Jesus was better through intermediaries, and the best intermediary is his mother. The image of Mary as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception illicits her best attributes as not only being the Mother of Christ, but for her purity.
The Franciscan missionaries brought to America the image of the Immaculate Conception. She is depicted standing on an angle supported moon or on a serpent wearing a crown with 12 stars.
This piece was inspired by a sculpture by Francisco Rivera (1840 -1910), a Puerto Rican carver that I admire. This piece was in gestation in my mind since December 1991 and I started production of it in 2000, finally having it available three years later.
This work has many secrets which probably I will keep for ever, because just in her creation I notice not at the time I studied the piece.
