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Artist Statement
Transfiguration: Woman and Myth
The two most influential forces on a developing child are initial motherly love, followed by an introduction to and inculcation into the omnipresent father culture. The societies into which most of us are born are steeped in long-established and decidedly patriarchal based myths and religions. The messages conveyed though these belief systems greatly affect the development of young minds. For instance, as little girls, many women are taught that Eve caused Death, and that Pandora brought Evil. And from an inappropriately young age, it is explicitly demonstrated to us that Venus ‘fits’ better as a sex symbol for man’s enjoyment, than she does as a powerful symbol of life source, worthy of the veneration of humankind as a whole. I am concerned about these kinds of cultural beliefs regarding women and girls which persist, today. My incentive in painting Eve, Pandora, and Venus is a desire to expose the fact that commonly held tenets about our mothers, sisters, wives, friends, and even selves, are largely myth-based. In three stand-alone panels, I look back through the ages at the changing cultural interpretations of the images of these three well-known figures, as told through myth. First I present the solidly patriarchal tale as we know it. Secondly, I reveal its precursor. Finally, I uproot and expose a deeper yet, more clandestine kernel-- from a time in which the Goddess was revered. From then to now, successive revisions of these and countless other myths have diminished the feminine form to fit the patriarchal mold. Along with these transfigurations of Eve, Pandora, Venus, and many other young mythical female figures, there is a preeminent protagonist who has become increasingly omitted, with the passage of time. This now missing aspect is the culturally absent spirit of The Great Mother Archetype, her embers long since extinguished. In homage, the final trinity of my twelve painting series focuses on the mother archetype, through the representation of Tiamat, Isis and the Virgin Mary. Across time, these and other mythic matriarchs have become successively less potent, as culturally sanctioned subservience has dampened their ancient, formidable radiance. A faint and smoldering glow does remain, but only as a distant and now seemingly inaccessible memory. I am compelled to reignite this feminine spirit in my paintings, in order to unveil the reverence with which the female was once regarded. I endeavor to imbue each mythological figure with the spiritual glow of the forgotten Goddess, through the use of warm and metallic colors, often surrounded by oppressive darkness. This body of work represents the faint yet still-burning ember of hope, barely kept aglow by the unswerving effort of women. Still living in omnipresent father cultures, we endeavor to re-member the Goddess, to her original myriad of forms. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EVE According to the book of Genesis, Eve was “born” of Adam’s rib. When an ‘object’ (here: Woman) is assigned a role outside reality (here: childbirth), this is called a Cognitive Metaphor. Here, this term represents the confusion and disconnect between lived experience and socially accepted belief. The account of the creation of Eve is believed by many born of a woman, and dictates the unreality that man, not woman, is the source of Life. Lilith (Eve's older sister) refuses to be subservient to Adam during sexual relations. In doing so, she and Woman became evil. When an underlying association is systematic in both language and thought we call this a Conceptual Metaphor, such as this concept that all women are inherently evil. After banishment from the Garden of Eden, Lilith is said to have lived in a willow tree- maybe even to have become the tree. This myth is now, curiously, so unfamiliar to most. Yet she is often seen in art scenes- such as The Fall of Man in the Sistine chapel: she is there in the tree of knowledge with the serpent- or she is the actual tree, or the actual serpent. The famous Burney relief, which I have visually quoted here, depicts lions- which link Ishtar to Inanna, as well as owls- or ‘angels of death,’ found in many myths. In the Hittite myth of Asertu, Ishtar herself becomes an owl in the hand of Elkunirsha – creator of earth. A goddess of many faces and tales, Ishtar is transfigured in a myriad of ways over time from a generous deity of fertility and love, into a jealous goddess of war, destruction and depravity. The older the goddess, the more benevolent; the more recent: the more malevolent. ********************************************** VENUS The birth of (Classical) Venus, like the birth of Eve, is another example of cognitive metaphor. The goddess of sexual love is “born” of the mix of sea water and the castrated remains of Ouranus, floating therein. All signs of a mother have long been extinguished. With the ‘birth’ of Venus, the firm belief in the importance of woman’s worth through sexual beauty drifted to the shore on the half shell, to be consumed by millennia to come. Plato asserts that there are two Aphrodites... Celestial and Vulgar… Venus Coelestis and Venus Naturalis. The bulging statuettes from Paleolithic caves emphasize the female attributes till they are little more than symbols of fertility, and the marble dolls of the Cyclades, in which already the unruly human body has undergone a geometrical discipline. Following Plato’s example, we might call them Vegetable and Crystalline Aphrodite.” (Kenneth Clark, The Nude, 1956) The first three-dimensional representations of humanity in art were created almost 30,000 years ago. These figurines, all female, had prominent reproductive features, and were small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand. And, most interestingly: they were found in many parts of the world from the same time period. Art historian Christopher Whitmore explains how it is, that male experts in the fields of archaeology and anthropology who found them, took control of these ancient representations of the female body, through their act of naming them 'Venus.' As Kenneth Clark pointed out: Vegetable Venuses. ********************************************** PANDORA Pandora did not have a box (pyxis), she had a jar (pithos). A pithos was a kind of container used to store grain, between harvest and consumption. In a classic case of ‘loss in translation’-- here from Greek to Latin-- the grain storage jar was transfigured into a box of sorrows. In retribution for Prometheus’ sharing of fire with humans, Zeus has Pandora molded out of clay, as the first woman. She was created as a creature of beauty and evil, to torment mortal man. But if one thinks back from pyxis to pithos and from father culture to goddess pre-‘culture’-- One can’t help but take note of the fact that Pandora is the first woman. And, as the first woman, she could be considered a goddess: her pithos not a grain jar- but her womb-- bringing forth all future life; thus is she ‘all-giving.' Demeter is the goddess of grain, and the mother of Persephone—the reason for the seasons. Demeter is alternately depicted holding a scepter and a torch. The scepter is a farming tool- not a symbol of regality, as we see in portraits of Renaissance kings. And the torch symbolizes Demeter’s search for her daughter who was abducted by Hades of the underworld. Demeter was so distraught by the abduction that she could create no grain, until her dear daughter was found and brought back to the light of day. There was a hitch, though, since Persephone broke a rule, by being tempted into taking a bite of pomegranate. As a result, she was sentenced to spend part of each year in hell—winter, for us, and part of the year on earth-- our spring and summer. The child of none and the mother of all, Gaia is our home: the earth. She brings forth all life, from plant to animal, from bacteria and virus to blue whale, and from slug and mosquito to humankind. She provides sustenance from her body- through the grains she produces. ************************************************** MOTHER Unlike Isis, young Mary is a mere mortal. She is deemed by God to be reputable enough for this duty, due to her role in a proper marriage to another – and older– mere mortal. Her piety is made even more immaculate by the fact of her virginity. She is not given any free will in the matter, and is later rejected by her grown son. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters —yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple.” (Bible) “I, Isis, am all that has been, that is or shall be; No mortal man hath ever me unveiled. The fruit which I have brought forth is the sun.” (Inscription from Isis Temple at Sais) The Enuma Elish is the oldest known Creation Story. Freshwater father deity Apsu combines with saltwater mother Tiamat. The poem tells of conflict between parents, as the offspring become disruptive, which irritates Apsu. Upon hearing of his complaints, the children plot to kill their father. Tiamat, the consummate motherly peace-maker, defends her children against her mate, and her mate against her children, all to no avail. Ultimately, in this primeval, macabre and matricidal account of where the earth came from, Tiamat’s own son splits her immense body in two, creating heaven and earth. |