Muse

Statement

These works combine the languages of pouring, drips and splatters, with overlaid biomorphic, curvilinear forms, nine works in the show represent the nine muses of greek mythology – pagan goddesses invoked by poets and artists for artistic inspiration. Another two works, depict a poem from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, ‘Minerva visits the Muses’, during which the muses escape a from a high tower, transforming into birds as they return home to mount Helicon.

Each of these paintings are abstracted narratives, drawing on goddess symbolism from antiquity, Some are more representational than others in their depictions of what the goddesses represent using symbols such as vessels, stars and laurel. Others are less literal, embodying the goddesses using process and non-objective means to represent themes like music, writing and dance.

These works explore mythologies of the divine feminine and the origin of genius, of transformational power, and dualities. Not all benevolence and grace, the Goddesses are multifaceted, dynamic figures capable of great gifts but also of jealously, vanity and vengefulness.

These works were painted using acrylic and ink on canvas, applied wet into wet in washes, pours, drips and splatters. Biomorphic and curvilinear forms applied overtop are more deliberate and carefully drawn in response to the drips and pours. These forms are often indeterminate, like matter between states.

Artwork