El Gran Poder de Dios Niche
July, 1987
37.5" x 17.62" x 15"
Devotional Objects, Tinwork, Niche of wood, watercolor and natural pigments, stamped tinwork and glass
Region: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Signed on bottom
Drawing from New Mexico’s long history of Catholic religious imagery and combining it with the 20th century craft of tin metal work, artists and the faithful express their faith and identity numerous ways. This tin and wood niche or nicho is made in part as cultural and religious affirmation. New Mexican artists Maria Romero Cash carves the wooden figures, and her husband Don Cash create the tin work.

El Gran Poder de Dios (The Great Power of God)

About the Artist
Marie Romero Cash is a celebrated folk artist and writer in Santa Fe where she has lived most of her life. She has created art for a number churches in the United States and in Mexico, including Stations of the Cross for the Basilica of St. Francis in Santa Fe.

As a writer, her early works focused on research-based books about the culture and churches of Northern New Mexico, along with a memoir about growing up in Santa Fe in the 1950s. A number of years ago she began to write a mysteries series based around Santa Fe featuring Jemimah Hodge, a forensic psychologist. She is currently working on the fifth of the series. The romantic novel about the Pueblo Revolt began as a screenplay over ten years ago when she was a student at Lesley College in Boston. Since then she has developed it into a novel.

Her works of art are in the following collections: Museum of International Folk Art; The Albuquerque Museum; Museum of Spanish Colonial Art; the Smithsonian Institute; The Vatican; The Archdiocese of Santa Fe; The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and many private collections.