Amor Forgiven / Venus and Cupid / Prosper d’ Epinay

marble 1888

Cupid was Venus’ baby, and a naughty boy. Always shooting those love arrows into people who weren’t a good match for different reasons. And Venus herself broke the rule about the gods and goddesses not interfering in the affairs of mortals when she promised Paris the love of the most beautiful woman in the world if Paris would pick her as the most beautiful goddess. Paris gave the golden apple that was the prize to Venus and she gave Paris the love of Helen of Troy. Helen was married to the prince of Troy and when she ran away with Paris it started the Trojan War. Plus, remember the stories of how Zeus changed his appearance to disguise himself as an animal in order to seduce some woman, man or nymph? All of the gods and goddesses broke the rule. So how could Venus stay mad at Cupid for messing up people’s lives? She couldn’t stay mad at him. Cupid was just too durn cute!

Young Diana by Anna Hyatt Huntington / bronze

This can be found at Brookgreen Gardens, S.C.

I saw on the news that the new movie “Hunger Games, Catching Fire” is inspiring a lot of young girls to take up archery. Rock on young archers! Here’s your muse.

Mother Nature and The Seasons…

Demeter Goddess of Nature

An assignment for my Creative Collage Class was to explore the theme of Nature. Autumn is a time of reflection for me…the changing of the Seasons, the shorter days and longer nights..the brisk nip in the air.

The assignment was to incorporate at least one image transfer. I looked through my collection of photocopies and kept coming back to a palmistry hand…palm open with descriptions marked for guidance.

But what would be a good match to a hand? I thought about the changing of the Seasons. I thought about how so many cultures celebrate the seasons through the eyes of a Mother Nature Goddess. And that is when I remembered the Greek Goddess Demeter.

I started with the hand. The photocopy was transferred to a canvas board. I added Distress Inks to the background using masks and a variety of wax resists. Through the use of stencils…both “home made” and Punchinella…I completed the background with metallic acrylic paint.

With the background finished, I added the image of Demeter. As she is associated with the fertile earth, I surrounded her with flowers and butterflies.

I very much enjoyed the project…and finished it during the Full Moon.

Goddess, Muse, Spirit…each brings a gift of change and delight for every Season.