Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Tihaljina (Near Medjugorje) Gallery Wrapped Canvas

More About The painting of Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Tihaljina (near Medjugorje), The Queen of Peace

My first pilgrimage to Medjugorje was in early March of 1988. It was at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Tihaljina that we heard Fr Jozo speak and then prayed at the foot of the statue of Our Blessed Mother.

The statue is called Our Lady of Grace (the title the artist gave it), the Immaculate Conception (the title given by the local parishioners in Tihaljina), Our Lady of Tihaljina (the title given by some pilgrims), and finally, Our Lady of Medjugorje (a title given when the gypsies descended on Medjugorje making money off the pilgrims by selling this image as Our Lady of Medjugorje).

Photographs of this statue became the face of everything Medjugorje. Often it would be with dark shadows, or be looking down and away from the viewer. It was placed upon my heart to paint Mother Mary looking at the viewer and to make Her gaze that of a Most Loving Mother looking tenderly at Her very dear children. I didn’t have a lot of time to do it, but I believed if it really was an inspiration from God then even doing it poorly, God would still use it to touch other people’s lives—and as we now know He has used it in a big way.

When I first put it up on my website, the gypsies stole it, made products with the image on them and then sold them to the pilgrims. Is it really stealing? Blessed Fulton Sheen taught that the more something flows from one’s personality it is then proper to say, “It is my property.” So, yes it is really stealing.

When I found out that what I thought would happen did indeed happen, I knew that this must have been an inspiration from God, and therefore worth repainting to look more beautiful.
As the original artist of the painting and owner of the rights I was not sad that the gypsies stole it, because my first love isn’t for art but for God, Mother Mary, Our family in Heaven and in Purgatory, and God’s very dear children here on Earth—yes, including the gypsies.

I am still a starving artist and have to put the art aside to do other work in order to provide for my family. But I am overjoyed that God used this image to bring millions closer to the Immaculate Heart of Mother Mary. May they remain ever close to Her Immaculate Heart in prayer!

In iconography I was taught that every icon represents the spirituality and the lived-out plan of life that the artist subscribes to (mine is that of Our Blessed Mother of Medjugorje, the Gospa, the Queen of Peace; and that of living Her call to prayer, fasting, almsgiving, intercession, fasting and expiation for sin, and the tending to the corporal and spiritual good of others, including those detained in Purgatory).

To read more about this painting please click HERE.