More Mythological Work

This piece was finished just before the ProArts open house.
It is part of the continuing work on the reinterpretation of ancient mythologies.
This piece comes from the middle eastern ancient Mithraic tradition. The god Mithras fighting and slaying the bull of heaven. Mithras was a solar diety who became very popular in Ancient Rome as a patron god of the soldier. His origins were in Persia and appropriately the images have a kind of resonance for what we are doing to the planet and to each other every day.

More Family Paintings

I finished painting these two paintings almost simultaneously. I knew that the portrait of the "Flapper" was from a photo of my husband's grandmother. I didn't realize that the other photo I used was of the same grandmother as a little girl. I loved the way she was wearing the bow and the jewelry, very seriously involved in her presentation. I titled this "Bows and Beads". I love doing the paintings from old photos. Some are very blurry or faded and all are sepia or black and white. I have not had any hand colored photos, so I get to imagine the colors that would have been worn or in the background. I try and understand the period as well as the people involved and try to find a way to allow their spirits to flow through the art.