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Painting of Angelina Jolie as Virgin Mary

A North Carolina artist intrigued by the public obsession with celebrity has found herself feeding that obsession with a painting of actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary hovering over a Wal-Mart check-out line. Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous work has garnered the attention given Blessed Art Thou, showing last weekend at Art Miami, an annual exposition of modern and contemporary art.The painting has gotten much attention from celebrity web sites and blogs. Since the buzz started, the number of daily unique visitors to Kretz's own blog has jumped from an average of 30 to 15,000.

The painting -- acrylic and oil on linen -- depicts an angelic Jolie in the clouds, holding her newborn daughter, Shiloh, with children Maddox and Zahara at her legs. Below them is a Wal-Mart checkout line. The painting is for sale for US $50,000 through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world."