We travel from Santa Fe to Taos, New Mexico, for the last new works I have to display that were commissioned for the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection on the theme of The Return of the Prodigal Son. Saint-maker Michael Vargas actually came up with three variations on the original Rembrandt painting in different styles and media now on view in the image gallery of his profile page in the Sacred Artist's section. Vargas replicates the central figure grouping of the father embracing his son in an oil on paper painting in the Dutch Master's same autumnal color palette, presents the father and son in a three-quarter pose in a sensitive pencil sketch, and recasts the scene (left) in oil on handmade paper in the style of traditional santos paintings of the American Southwest. This third image includes all the elements we might expect to find in this folk art genre, derived from the Baroque religious art that Spanish colonizers brought to the New World. The drawn red curtains add a theatrical touch to the dramatic reunion scene by way of Rembrandt. The father has already laid out sandals and a fine robe on a chair to the right to cover the prodigal's nakedness, symbolizing his restoration to the family circle. (John Kohan)