Amidst the chaos of the narrow streets in the Montecalvario district of Naples there are signs and traces of almost every conceivable human thought process scribbled somewhere on the ancient walls, but it's quite unusual to find graffiti on anything relating to the Virgin Mary.
So rather than use one of the hundreds and thousands of cared-for, if occasionally forgotten, images of la Santa Madre, I decided to make an image based on this one.
In choosing it I hoped to reflect more accurately the devotion and reverence with which the virgin mary is still regarded in many parts of the world, alongside the ambivalence and even outright hostility felt in others.
