New Work

Late Fall 2020: Like many artists, I have been “enjoying” a period of lock-down and moderate isolation. Since I am quite used to spending time alone in the studio, this has not meant a major change to my routines. Cancelled travel plans were a minor inconvenience: I recently visited Venice for the Biennale (November 2019) and traveled elsewhere in Europe and Canada within the last year (see the “Travel” section). The positive side is that I have had additional time to focus on the studio. Work continues on several oil paintings (a set of Icons, as featured in the Gallery section).

In order to categorize and “accession” my work from the past two years, I created a virtual art gallery, the Oneiros Gallery (from the Greek word for dream).

This is the entrance to the Oneiros Gallery including the list of 12 or so featured paintings. While the gallery itself is virtual (i.e. digital 3-d) the work is real (oil on canvas), framed and sized as shown. Details of the paintings are available in Gallery One (see menu).

Here are a few additional views of the interior of Oneiros Gallery.

Additional views of Oneiros Gallery. A workspace for artists is located on the lower level. (The object in the glass case is an Egyptian artifact on loan from a different collection.)

This theme – i.e. the Black Madonna – has gone through a number of iterations (as I continue to work with it). Attentive viewers will be aware of the tradition of the Black Madonnas; as mentioned above, the “blackness” seems to signify her association with the Dionysian side of creation. In this respect she has a clear relationship with Isis, Persephone, Nut (Egyptian goddess of the night), Ishtar etc. (I am inclined to see also consider “Alice” as one of the Goddesses of the Underworld.)

In the earliest versions the "Madonna" was more of an "Alice" figure (which explains the hookah). The chalice with serpents associates her traditionally with the Book of the Apocalypse; the blackness resulted from an accidental experiment with photo filters.

Currently on the Easel

As work on the Great Whore of Babylon and other projects continues in my digital studio, I also continue to work on several paintings (oil/acrylic on canvas). The one on the right is perhaps 2/3 finished; it is based in part on a painting by Crivelli (Italian painter from the 1400s); the one on the left is in its earliest stages.