The virus pandemic brought focus on social distancing and the trauma, pain and suffering that results. We're socially distanced in so many ways beyond 6 feet of physical space and I've begun a new series to explore this.
Inspired by my thorough occupation and enjoyment in painting 'Nevermore', I couldn't leave my nod to Athena (on whose helmet Nevermore perched), without exploring Greek Mythology a little further. Taking the easier road in first reading Madeline Miller's two novels, Circe and The Song of Achilles, I decided it was time to revisit the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. I painted Circe with the Hawk- a symbolic bird for her and Athena, goddess of Wisdom and Protection (War), with both her Owl and spear, with her attention directed to the Owl.
Remains of the Day is a rework of a painting that hadn't ever quite satisfied me. I took it up again to modify to create the mood.
Solitude, a rural landscape, took me to a place very foreign to Greek goddesses. Commissioned by my son-in-law, I was challenged in changing direction.
And I return to crows and ravens as featured actors in my stories.
As Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) wrote in his Letters
to a Young Poet:
I want to ask
you, as clearly as I can, to bear with patience all that is unresolved in your
heart, and try to love the questions themselves. . . . For everything must be
lived. Live the questions now, perhaps then, someday, you will gradually,
without noticing, live into the answer.
