Unto Us from the collection of Miriam McClung

Color correct photograph.

Unto Us, 1985

Pastel on Board

47.5 x 59.5 in

Inv: 431-MM

NFS

Not For Sale

"Unto Us" depicts the birth of Christ, with its setting drawn from the town of Crestline, Alabama. The piece began as a pastel McClung made of Crestline Village seen from the Tot Lot playground in the fall—its big red oaks, the Steeple Arts building, and mothers and children at play.

A year later, around Christmas, she found herself thinking of the passage from Isaiah, "unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," and decided to use that same Crestline view for the Nativity. Working from memory and a few photographs, she transformed the familiar landmarks into the Christmas story: the Tot Lot became the stable, the Steeple Arts building became the inn with no room, and the three wise men came in from the direction of the AmSouth Bank. At the bottom of the scene Mary and Joseph shelter with the newborn Jesus in a little shed, visited by ordinary people, while angels move through the sky above and McClung's hand-lettered scripture runs across the surface telling the story.

The deep blues throughout carry the memory of the work itself—she recalled dragging the board out each morning for the one free hour she had, painting in the cold. "Unto Us" is one of three pieces McClung made on Christ's birth, along with "Each to His Own City" and "The Annunciation"; meant to be shown together, all three are done in pastel on a blue ground with words from the nativity story written throughout.

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