Monster, oil on canvas, 24" x 30"
My work is inspired by stories and characters from Greek mythology and the sculptures that depict them. I am also interested in the way that mythologies have endured and evolved throughout history. Julien d’ Huy tracks the evolution of myths using the same methods that are used to track evolutionary history. He is interested in learning about the migration of myths and folklores over time to determine how and why myths evolve. The way that I personally relate to the myths, particularly women in mythology continues to evolve. I am concerned with the meaning of the myths and how cultures and individuals continue to relate to them. I am also interested in comparing the experience, or rather what we hypothesize about the experience of women in antiquity to the experience of contemporary women.
Louise Bourgeois frequently referenced stories from mythology in her work. She was also very open about the trauma she experienced as a child. Bourgeois described in a Tateshots video that she “transforms hate into love.” She was speaking about how she transforms her traumatic childhood memories into art. She believed that artmaking is therapeutic. I agree.I also endured a traumatic childhood and began painting and drawing when I was 12. I often use characters from myths as metaphors for my personal experiences. Stories from mythology include love and joy, but also abandonment and death. Characters from myth endure trauma and violence. Myths explain the world around us, such as nature, the seasons, and the constellations. They are filled with contemporarily relatable characters, symbols and metaphors.
Early Greek poets portrayed Medusa was a monster born of monsters, but later, according to Hesiod (c. 7-8 BC) she was the only mortal of the three Gorgon sisters and after Poseidon laid with her in a soft field among spring flowers she was beheaded by Perseus. Ovid, the Roman poet describes her (c. 1 BC -1CE) as being violated by Poseidon in the shrine of Athena. Athena then punishes her by turning her lovely hair into loathsome snakes that turn men to stone at the sight of her. She is then beheaded by Perseus and from her blood springs Pegasus and Chrysaor. Athena wears Medusa’s head on her aegis and lock of her hair was given to Hercules for protection as it too could be used by the beholder to turn others to stone. The story has evolved. The face of Medusa is now often interpreted as a symbol of feminism and protection. I have painted Medusa a few times. I referenced Bernini’s sculpture in all three paintings. I have a deep affinity for ancient sculpture, but I also reference sculpture as a nod to the telephone game that is the retelling of myths over time. One of these Medusa paintings featured my daughter looking into a mirror with the reflection of Bernini’s Medusa looking back at her. I had read an interpretation of the myth that suggested that Athena had turned Medusa into a monster to protect her from future assaults. I don’t subscribe to this interpretation, but it did make me consider the ways in which we try to protect our daughters from sexual assault and harm in general. When I painted the Medusa, I was inspired by Ovid’s telling of the Medusa story in Metamorphosis in which Medusa is violated, then turned into a monster, then murdered. I was also concerned with the lasting effects of trauma. A contemporary version of Bernini’s sculpture is the focal point of the painting. I painted the ranunculus in the background with excessively saturated colors and then covered it layer by layer with thinned opaque white paint until only a trace of what the flower once was remained.
Louise Bourgeois wrote “Everyday you have to abandon your past or accept it and then if you cannot accept it you become a sculptor.”