"Throughout the inhabited world,
in all times and under every circumstance, the myths of man have
flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of
whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the
human body and mind. It would not be too much to say that myth
is the sacred opening through which the inexhaustible energies
of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions,
philosophies, arts , the social forms of primitive and historic
man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very
dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of
myth."
Joseph Campbell "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" |
Nightfall -Dierdre and
Naoise
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Since childhood I have
been fascinated by the stories that have passed down from my
cultural ancestors, the Greeks, Nordic peoples, and the Celts
especially. At first encountered as simple entertaining tales,
their symbolic content has gradually become more evident. Often,
I felt identified with these men and women who, though they
inhabited a world so different from my own, still carried themes
familiar to present reality.
These paintings, a kind of visual poetry, grew out of
reflections on nature and myth. Part of my way is to illuminate
and question those mysteries of transition; the 'rites of
passage' we all must walk through. |
The Fisher King
|
Mythical beings hold such interest
because they live in our psyches, helping us to comprehend, more
universally, the changes that life presents us, encounters with
desire and destiny which echo our own.
Although references are drawn from well known stories, they are
not simply 'illustrations' as such; but rather focus on the
undercurrents and meanings made flesh by the the symbols and
characters .Indeed, some appear in both modern settings and
dress.
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The Lady of Shallot
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| This blend of mythic imagination and
personal impression is as the overlay of some fine transparent
substance. Such 'little' moments of vision seemingly fuse the
mythic with our memory ,evoking undiscovered emotions. They thus
reveal something of the 'fabric of dream' which lies quietly
behind all daily existence. |
Calypso
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information and a larger view.
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