Lisa Sandlin

Fiction

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You Who Make the Sky Bend

You Who Make the Sky Bend: Saints as Archetypes of the Human Condition is a book of retablo paintings by Catherine Ferguson, accompanied by biographies Lisa Sandlin compiled from ancient and contemporary sources and poetry.

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"For every saint, the book features a juxtaposition of Sandlin's words with Ferguson's image. Their tale of Brigid of Ireland, who is associated with birth, light, and poetry, is that of a girl who, Sandlin writes, 'walks in the goddess's footsteps. She calls words to poets and grants sure-handedness to the crafters of things, acts as balm to the sick and dying, makes the land bear and flower.' In Ferguson's interpretation of Brigid, the goddess-girl skips through a snowy, sun-drenched landscape, braids flying, wolves running alongside her."

—Carmella Padilla, The New Mexican