See how many references to the Christmas story you can find in the work. One example: Maria’s Nazareth High School hoodie. By American illustrator Everett Patterson, “José y Maria,” pen and ink. #Christmas #illustration #graphicdesigner #penandink
From Alyson Rockwood, Common Good Magazine, August 26, 2022: Patterson chose a “modern setting in front of a bodega and modern clothes but framed and composed it like a medieval illustration, with halos and the stilted postures of medieval paintings.” He had fun adding “knowing winks” and allusions, like Mary sitting on a horse and the Starr beer sign.
Yet, the inspiration for the piece ran deeper still. At the time he was creating it, the Syrian refugee crisis was growing. There was an increase in xenophobia, and images of immigrants and refugees were ever-present. Patterson wanted to remind people that “Jesus was a refugee, a poor person with nowhere to lay his head.”’