Sophia, 
Holy Wisdom, Bride of Light, 
from your fire my 
spark of soul is lit.
Illuminate my mind.
Mother of Mystery, 
open all knowledge I need. 
You bring light from 
the highest to the lowest
and all the sleeping stir.
The shadow remembers 
the sun that cast it,
howsoever far, and through 
the window of my heart
the starlight sees its star.

© Gabrielle Herbertson

About the Artist

Lynn Garlick started carving, painting, and producing her retablos in 1993. Her workshop is located in the high desert town of Taos, New Mexico, a landscape richly steeped in religious iconography and history. The retablo, or ʻboard behind the alterʼ, was originally created in New Mexico in the 1800ʼs in response to the lack of Bibles and Icons being sent from the church in Rome. The Santero (saint maker) painted retablos from pigment collected and ground from the local surroundings. The boards were hand hewed usually of ponderosa pine or tin. The practice has carried down through the generations and is still done this way today. Lynn paints her originals retablos on traditional pine boards carving and then paints them. To create her production work the images are mounted on baltic birch.