About the Lithograph:
It was December 1989, and Christmas was almost upon Charleston. The city was alive with excitement as the air grew colder. The area still had its scars from the visit of the storm of the century, Hurricane Hugo, and in spite of the decorations, the landscape still bore the evidence of that historic pounding. Then, from above, a winter storm, so uncommon to the Lowcountry, descended, blanketing the area in what seemed a heavenly gift, the snowfall of 1989. The landscape was transformed into a winter wonderland, and Charleston was treated to a once-in-a-lifetime gift, a white Christmas. Gone from view were the remaining signs of Hugo's damage. From the sky had come a heaven of beauty covering reality from one's sight and giving Charleston the wondrous gift of the season.
Madeline then paints snow falling as though from a heavenly chorus of angels. She portrays it as a gift of that time and yet suggests in a camouflage of clouds the generosity of God through the ages in an apparition of the birth of Christ and the visit of the Three Wise Men. As the heavens have moved through time shaping our future, Madeline has painted the sky, bestowing the gift of beauty to help us forget the unfortunate past and yet reinforce the optimism of the future through the hope of the ages.