Even before the GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGG was completed, John August Swanson began developing the ideas for his next serigraph –THE MADONNA. As he poured over his various drawings and sketches from the last twenty years, a few ideas with similar themes began to emerge as a likely possibility for the next serigraph.

 

Two earlier paintings are among the sources of inspiration for this new serigraph: Each Time I Think of You, 1986 and a Study of Madonna in watercolor made in 1991. Stories about Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, inspire and nurture people from all over the globe, and not only Catholics. People recognize within the icons of the Madonna a way to reconnect with the source of life, to experience a sense of the unconditional love perhaps best expressed by one’s own mother. “Each work evolves from many sources,” Swanson explains. “It may be a chance remark. I make a sketch. Time passes, and I go back to it. I read the story again and I make more sketches. It's like ground being prepared for planting. It may take a long time.”

 

As in his seminal work, A VISIT, Swanson has chosen to place Mary into a backdrop of life within a larger community of people working together and helping one another.