ARCHIVES 2007 - 2012
Reflections on life, myth & art
WINTER 2012
Symbolism
A box on my head
The road not taken
Opening the box
When the Center cannot hold
The Chariot of the Sun
The slaying of the Chimera
The Doom Fulfilled
The Sisyphean Rock
JOURNAL 2011
Nurturing voice & vision
JOURNAL 2010
Finding a guiding light
JOURNAL 2009
Creating a feminine myth
JOURNAL 2008
Finding the inner muse
JOURNAL 2007
Exploring faith & creativity
WINTER 2012
SYMBOLISM
The Dream. Henri Rousseau. 1910. Museum of Modern Art, New York. According to Roman mythology, Venus is the Roman goddess of love, fertility and beauty. The castration of her father Uranus by her brother Cronus fertilized the ocean and from the fertile waters Venus arose. Artistic interpretations of her birth do not typically depict the actual birth but the moment when Venus arrives at the shores of Paphos (Cyprus) in a shell.
The job of the artist is to deepen the mystery.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English lawyer and philosopherThe work of psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung provided ground-breaking insights into the interpretation of imaginative, symbolic and dream material. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed that repressed aggression and sexuality are at the root of human behavior. In his therapeutic practice, he explored dream material for insights into these unconscious drives and their effect on human behavior. Carl G. Jung (1875-1961), a protege of Freud, disputed his mentor's premise of aggression and sexuality as the sole motivating forces behind human behavior. His areas of research broadened to include not only dream material, but art, mythology, religion and philosophy. His major contributions to the field of psychoanalysis are the Jungian archetypes and the concepts of synchronicity and the collective unconscious.
The work of both Freud and Jung was particularly influential to the development of Symbolism, a multi-disciplinary arts movement, most active in the late nineteenth century. The Symbolist movement rejected naturalism and realism in favor of spirituality, the imagination and dreams.
WINTER 2012
A BOX ON MY HEAD.
In the box. Also known as A corner of the loge. Mary Cassatt. 1879. Private collection.
Someone in the southeastern United States recently bought one of my paintings and yesterday I mailed it to him. In order to save shipping costs, I packed the box myself. The end result weighed just over seven pounds and measured an unwieldy 33" by 41" by 3". In other words, though light in weight, the box was still long enough and wide enough to be extremely difficult to carry. Unwieldy-ness notwithstanding, since the FedEx satellite store was only a few blocks away, I decided to carry it there myself.
While making my way up Broadway, the box slipped and shifted constantly. I tried several ways of carrying it but none worked for very long. Finally I had an inspiration and lifted the box up to my head and in that way I successfully made it to the FedEx store. What a comical sight I must have made, like some Dr. Seuss imagining -- a quite tall, so freckled, white lady with a box growing out of her head.
Which brings me to what happened yesterday on the way to the FedEx store: I experienced the workings of my mythic eye. My lens on the world is my "mythic eye." That means I tend to use symbols and metaphors when interpreting the world around me. And yesterday my mythic eye contemplated the spectacle of walking down Broadway with a box growing out of my head and saw something larger.
It's kind of hard to explain but in that particular moment I felt connected to other women, possibly all other women, women and how they work through their day, whether raising children or governing countries or walking around with boxes on their head. And I saw my part in that bigger picture as both unique and yet also universal. For a few moments I experienced the beautiful groove of my life and how amazing that felt to be in it. And interestingly, that moment came not at my easel -- but while managing the details of my daily life.
WINTER 2012
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Butterflies. Odilon Redon. 1910. The myth of Psyche and Eros (Cupid) is a mythological metaphor for the feminine journey toward consciousness. Psyche is the Greek word for both soul and butterfly. The ancients Greeks originally depicted the soul or spirit as a stick figure with wings. The butterfly/moth as a symbol of spirit and its potential for transformation originated from that source.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
(excerpt) The Road Not Taken. Robert Frost.In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard recounts J. Henri Fabre's observations of the instinctual herding of pine processionaries. Pine processionaries are moth caterpillars which travel through pine trees along a group-generated silk strand. Their bug parade is head-to-rear in one long unbroken procession, hence the name. Fabre noted a troupe of such bugs, stuck for days on the rim of a vase in his greenhouse. "The caterpillars in distress," he concludes, "starved, shelterless, chilled with cold at night, cling obstinately to the silk ribbon covered hundreds of times, because they lack the rudimentary glimmers of reason which would advise them to abandon it." Annie Dillard quoting Fabre, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (pp. 67-68)
And what would happen if just one of those bugs had chosen the "road not taken"? Well, as it turns out, a lone caterpillar did navigate off the rim of the vase, a few caterpillars inching forward behind her. Fabre had placed pine needles within reach of these pioneers but it was to no avail. Mere inches from the pine needles they turned and rejoined the group in its caterpillar death march.
These processionaries seem an apt metaphor for the tendency of human groups to act collectively or to hold group beliefs which exhibit little or no individual conscious reflection. (Related terms are mob mentality, groupthink, herding instinct and bandwagon effect.) Fearing retaliation or isolation, desiring to avoid conflict, deferring to authority -- whatever the reason -- human herd behaviors can be just as entrenched as the circling of head-to-rear processionaries. The cycle can be broken when group assumptions are challenged and analyzed. But first it is required that one person consider leaving the metaphorical rim of the vase.
WINTER 2012
OPENING THE BOX
Pandora. Dante Gabriel Rosetti.
(W)omen can rescue themselves and others through tricks, pursue what they need or desire through tricks, transform what they find unworkable or unworthy through tricks. Even in adversity and oppression, women are capable of tricking their way into more desirable positions, of using tricks to gain advantages for their communities. Scheherazade's Sisters: Trickster heroines and their stories in world literature, Marilyn Jurich.
Zeus, chief god of all the gods, had tired of the human race. He determined to deny humanity all blessings until the last mortal had died out. Prometheus, however, felt great compassion for humanity. One day he stole fire from Mount Olympus and bestowed it on mankind so that they might have perpetual warmth and light. On the night following the fire theft Zeus looked down from Mount Olympus and saw the glow of many fires. He was so incensed that he chained Prometheus to a mountain where a giant eagle fed on his ever-regenerating liver. Prometheus was an immortal and would have suffered for all eternity had Hercules not rescued him several generations later.
For both immortal and mortal, every trick has it consequence. Some good, some bad. The theft of fire was no exception. For Prometheus the consequence was a punishment of chains and unrelenting agony. For humanity, the consequence was the great gift of fire. However, there was also a negative consequence for the mortal world and it came in the form of Pandora.
Pandora, meaning all-gifted, was the first woman. And, according to the myth, she is the punishment that Zeus devised for the theft of fire. When the gods and goddesses created her, Pandora received various gifts: beauty, healing, charm, cunning, boldness and creativity. And to this mix Zeus added mischievousness and a deep curiosity. He then presented her to the mortal ruler Epimetheus, with a beautiful golden box as her dowry.
Before Prometheus was chained to the rock, he warned Epimetheus of Pandora and her golden box. However, when Epimetheus saw Pandora he fell in love with her and married her despite the warning. Epimetheus told Pandora to never open the box but eventually Pandora could not contain her curiosity and she opened the golden box. Up to that day, humanity had lived in a paradise free from worry and affliction but when the lid was lifted disease, despair and suffering flooded out into the world. Realizing what she had done, Pandora quickly lowered the lid. But it was too late and the world was forever changed.
But there is still more to the myth of Prometheus, Pandora and the fire theft. Some time later Pandora's curiosity sent her back to the golden box. Only one more thing remained inside. It was hope. And when she lifted the lid for the final time, hope came into the world.
WINTER 2012
WHEN THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD
The fall of Icarus (detail of Icarus in right corner just below the boat). Pieter Bruegel.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
"The Second Coming", William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), poet and dramatistDaedalus was an architect and master craftsman who constructed a hollow cow so that the Queen of Crete could mate with Poseidon's white bull. From that union the monstrous Minotaur, half-man and half-bull, was born. The ruler of Crete, King Minos, then commanded that Daedalus construct the Labyrinth to secure the dangerous beast.
Many years later, the hero Theseus came to Crete to slay the Minotaur. Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, assisted him by providing a golden thread which he tied to the entrance of the maze. After Theseus killed the Minotaur, he followed the thread back to the entrance and then he and Ariadne fled together. King Minos was so furious about the loss of Ariadne that he imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus inside the Labyrinth. However, Daedalus was able to find his way back out. He then fashioned wings out of feathers and wax so that he and Icarus could flee from the island by air. Just before they departed, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun; however, Icarus was so intoxicated by the experience of flight that he strayed too high. The heat of the sun melted the wax and his wings fell apart. Daedalus succeeded in escaping but Icarus plunged into the sea and drowned.
WINTER 2012
THE CHARIOT OF THE SUN
The fall of Phaëton. Odilon Redon. 1900.
Down, down I come, like glist'ring Phaëton.
Richard II (Act III, scene iii). William Shakespeare, 1595Phaëton was the son of Eos and Apollo. When he was but a youth he bragged to his friends that he was the child of the sun-god. However, his friends did not believe his story and ridiculed him. Upset by this lack of belief, Phaëton went to Mount Olympus and complained to his father. Apollo loved his son and made a rash promise: Ask for anything and I will give it, as proof that I am your father. Without hesitation, Phaëton asked for a chance to drive the sun-chariot. At first Apollo refused, warning his son that what he requested was too dangerous. He offered many other wonderful things instead but his son insisted that all he desired was to drive the chariot of the sun.
Apollo lead his son to the stables which housed the chariot. He instructed Phaëton to drive the horses through the middle way, or a great tragedy would befall him. However, Phaëton did not listen to his father's advice. Grabbing the reins, he jumped into the chariot and cracked a whip over the heads of the four sun-horses. The mythical beasts, sensing an unsure hand, charged out of their stalls and raced toward the highest heavens. As they left the earth further and further behind, the planet grew cold and dark. When Phaëton tried to stop their upward climb, the steeds turned and plunged toward the earth, drawing so close that the fiery chariot set the world on fire.
Zeus looked down from Mount Olympus and, seeing the havoc below, threw a thunderbolt at Phaëton. The youth died instantly and fell out of the sun-chariot into the river Eridanos. On learning of his death, his sisters transformed into poplars that wept amber tears.
WINTER 2012
THE SLAYING OF THE CHIMERA
Pegasus. Walter Crane. ca. 20th C.
While Bellerophon was visiting Argives, King Proteus and his wife Antea entertained him. During his stay, Antea asked Bellerophon to meet her secretly so that they could lie together but he was an honorable man and refused. In retaliation, Antea told her husband that the innocent youth had tried to lie with her against her will. She begged her husband to execute him.
Proteus was unwilling to kill Bellerophon himself. Instead Proteus dispatched him to Lycia with letters of introduction which contained many slanderous lies. He told Bellerophon to present the letters to his father-in-law with the hope that the king of Lycia would kill him.
When he reached Lycia, the king entertained him for nine days. On the tenth day, Bellerophon presented him with the letters. After reading them, the king was furious and determined to send him to his death by commanding that he slay the Chimera. The Chimera was not a human being, but a goddess with the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent and the body of a goat. When the Chimera opened her mouth she shot forth toxic flames of fire.
Before Bellerophon went into battle, however, a seer advised him to first capture Pegasus. With the aid of Athena and her golden bridle, he caught the winged horse. While riding Pegasus and battling the Chimera, Bellerophon hurled lead-tipped spears into her throat. The fiery breath quickly melted the lead tips, thereby suffocating the Chimera. But the story does not end here.
From the Greek word for excessive pride or wanton violence, hubris is the defiance of the gods and their divine order and Bellerophon fell prey to this tragic flaw. One day while riding Pegasus, he turned the steed toward the divine realm of Mount Olympus with the intent of joining them. Zeus saw him approaching and sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus. When bitten by the fly, the horse reared, throwing his rider back to earth. Afterward Zeus placed Pegasus in his heavenly stables where he can be seen as a constellation to this day. Bellerophon was not so fortunate. According to the myth, he lived out the remainder of his mortal life as a cripple.
WINTER 2012
THE DOOM FULFILLED
The Doom Fulfilled. Edward Burne Jones. 1884-85. Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart
Polydectes, king of the island of Seriphos, lusted for Danae, the mother of Perseus. Wishing to pursue the mother unchallenged, the king devised a way to be rid of her son. He held a banquet where he required from each guest the gift of a horse. Perseus had none and so promised to bring some other offering instead. Polydectes demanded the head of the Medusa.
The Medusa was once a beautiful woman who fell in love with Poseidon. They had a tryst in the temple of Athena and when the goddess found the pair, she transformed her into a Gorgon. A Gorgon was a winged beast who had a tangle of serpents for hair and whose visage was so monstrous that it turned the beholder into stone. Since no mortal had ever survived a battle with the Medusa, Polydectes was certain that this quest would be the death of Perseus. However, before he left, Athena and Hermes gave Perseus two weapons especially suited for the battle: a highly polished shield and the adamantine sword.
In order to locate the Medusa, Perseus first visited the Graeae, the three blind sisters of the Gorgons. The Graeae shared one eye and one tooth. As they were passing the eye back and forth, Perseus seized it. He agreed to return it in exchange for the location of the Gorgons. The sisters reluctantly complied and our hero embarked for the lair of the Medusa.
All three Gorgons were sleeping when Perseus entered their cave. Rather than risking his death by looking directly in the Medusa's face, he beheaded her by using his divine shield as a mirror. He quickly stowed the severed head in a bag as proof of his conquest for Polydectes. The other two Gorgons awoke and chased Perseus but the Medusa's magical blood transformed into the mythic horse Pegasus and on his winged back, he escaped. Pegasus is a Renaissance addition to this myth. In earlier versions, Perseus defeats the Medusa and completes his hero's journey with the aid of winged sandals.
During the return to Seriphos, Perseus stopped in the kingdom of Ethiopia. Queen Cassiopaeia had brought a curse on the kingdom by bragging that she was equal in beauty to the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite punished the kingdom by sending a treacherous sea serpent. An oracle told Cassiopaeia, in order to save the kingdom, she must chain her daughter Andromeda to a rock at sea for the monster to devour.
Perseus battled the sea serpent and won. He then freed Andromeda and claimed her as his bride. However, she was already betrothed to Phineus. At the wedding, a quarrel broke out between the two men and Perseus unveiled the Medusa, turning his rival into stone. Ultimately Perseus returned to his homeland of Seriphos. When he arrived, he learned that Polydectes was pursuing his mother so violently that she had gone into hiding. Perseus then killed the king with the head of the Medusa.
WINTER 2012
THE SISYPHEAN ROCK
Sisyphus. Franz von Stuck. 1920.
There is a God-shaped hole in the heart of Man where the divine used to be.
Jean Paul Sartre (1905-80) French existentialist philosopher and writerIn Greek mythology, Sisyphus is a masterful trickster who received eternal punishment for defying the gods. At the end of his life, Sisyphus outwitted Death by tricking him into donning his own shackles. Death remained chained until Ares, the god of war, freed him. Death then returned to escort Sisyphus to the Underworld. Before leaving the earth, however, Sisyphus instructed his wife to leave his body unburied. When he arrived in the Underworld, Sisyphus asked Persephone, Queen of the Dead, for permission to return to earth to make arrangements for his burial. Persephone granted his request. Upon his return, Sisyphus neglected his burial, defied the gods, and engaged in the delights of his impulses and desires. Not long after, Death came a third and final time.
When Sisyphus finally arrived in the Underworld, the gods sentenced him for his willfulness. His punishment was to roll a large boulder over the top of a high mountain and down the other side. This task might have been accomplished on the first attempt by a mortal as powerful as Sisyphus. However, each time he pushed the boulder to the summit, the stone would slip from his grasp and roll back down to the base. In this way, the gods were appeased.
