Penelope is a remarkable and noteworthy character from Greek mythology. She provides a rare example of a strong mortal woman in Greek literature. The Odyssey by Homer is a narrative of Odysseus’ decades-long quest to return home to Ithaca. Ten years have passed since the fall of Troy, and Odysseus still has not returned to his kingdom in Ithaca. At home, a large mob of 108 suitors overrun Odysseus’s palace and pillaged his land and courted his wife Penelope. In the Odyssey Penelope is portrayed as a devoted wife, weeps and waits for Odysseus. However, she is a complicated woman with a twisted sense of destiny, cleverly misguided the suitors leading with promises but choosing no one. To spare herself from choosing one of the suitors, she insisted that they should wait until the moment she has woven the shroud for Laertes, the father of Odysseus. Each night she unraveled a piece which she had woven within that day.
The conception of this painting started with the theme of love, and how when Penelope can’t fight the physical battle of invaders of her home, she still manages to keep herself, her son, and the kingdom safe, while still holding out hope that her husband will eventually return. The control of color in this painting is used to convey many aspects of hope, love, and deception. Her face is an image of despair, thoughtfulness, wisdom, and intelligence amidst all the chaos of the suitors taking over her kingdom. The black and white represent her coldness towards the suitors, holding out her true “color” while she stays confined to her sadness and depression. In front of her is the light of hope, and behind her is the gloom of the situation as symbolized by the background. While Odysseus sinks deeper and deeper into the inner world of his fantasy, she remains his anchor, that dash of “color” as a beacon for that safe harbor he will reach home one day. Penelope is intimately connected with the cycles of darkness and light, despair and hope, shades of greys and colors. She wears a color headband, a beacon for her husband’s return, a sign of commitment, a promise that won’t die. Her undergarment is red, a passion for Odysseus, while the tunic, the outer garment, is partially color contaminated by the suitors she wishes to shed.
I’ve been behind in sharing my new work. This large piece will appear in a show called “Justice” at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art from 11/14-12/24/20 in Novato, CA.
Between the breakdown of society and ignorance of the problems we face, resides a space call conversation, where truths are exchanged. It’s not a space for misidentification, exaggeration, attention grabbing, and simplification. Only through honest and in-depth identification of the problems can problems be solved. We are equipped with the knowledge, the resources, reasoning ability, and the mindfulness to hold back judging quickly or to follow the trends, the mass, and our genetic tendency for tribalism. It’s essential that the lines of communications for intellectual dialogues are open, democratic, and free of societal fear and condemnation. Only through successful open conversations can society transcend to a unifying understanding of the problems we face and the solutions we crave. It is through attention to evidences, confronting our bias and ego, and setting aside our politics and religious beliefs, that ideas and reasons can flourish to bring us to a better place for humanity.
The Great White Rhino (48 x 48 in, oil on canvas) This one is life size. I’ve done many elephant and rhino paintings over the years, with 100’s of photos that I’ve detailing the complexity of the skin folds. For a successful piece, the relative size of the folds to the overall size of the animal needs to be correct. As I’ve often stress the importance of relative values, the values of the skin fold shadows must be accurate to the overall mass shadows of the animal, in relative values and intensity. For these reasons, I enjoy capturing these massive animals repeatedly without losing interest .
20″ x 20″, oil on wood A glow illuminates the space. The mind and spirit take a form of energy that transcend the mundaneness. Inspiration illuminates. There’s a thrilling feeling of elevation, a burst of energy, an awareness of greater possibilities. It takes form of creative action rather than mere appreciation. Something beautiful and productive. There is new perception, some holistic understanding, along with the feeling that one is capable of more. Time alters its pace. The senses are amplified. Some might say it is something mysterious, uncontrollable bursting forth deep in the unconscious, a new light. The Greeks said it was the Muses. Inspiration is a gift that passes from one individual to another, one that to be trusted, internalized, and radiated towards others.
Pandora received a jar as a wedding gift from Zeus with the intention of punishing man, a retaliation for the gift of fire mankind received from the Titan, Prometheus. Pandora was instructed to never open the jar, but the efforts to tame her curiosity failed and she opened it releasing pain and suffering. However, she closed the jar with hope for humanity still remains inside. The legacy of Pandora’s jar is filled with hope and vitality. A girl, guided by dreams and determination, is about to embark on a journey of discovery in her world of uncertainty and chaos.
This painting takes on a more colorful, vibrate approach. While the underpainting is still at play, there is less emphasis on a monochromatic underpainting, but more on a spontaneous splashes of highly chromatic colors using direct painting technique. Of course, as usual, the face is treated with realistic precision, and outward towards looser brushstrokes. The relationship of values is still the most crucial, but there is more of the high and low values in the surroundings, whereas the midtones are closely assembled for the face to create a separate area of focus. These factors make this particular painting deviate from my previous portraits.
