RETURN TO CYTHERA
Oil on board 96x48"
Inspiration for this piece came from the painting The Departure From Cythera by French artist Antoine Watteau. In Watteau's painting, a group of aristocratic patrons are leaving Cythera, the island of Aphrodite.
Return To Cythera pays homage to Watteau and the Rococo period. Here, people are returning to the garden to embrace love. The painting is predominated by two large figures. One figure is suspended on the left, occupying three-quarters the length of the painting. She represents Aphrodite and is constructed from details found in her mythological world. In the lower right, the other figure reclines, representative of a war goddess giving birth to two armies which later divide and fight each other.
In essence, this painting is about love, war, and rejuvenation.
Return To Cythera pays homage to Watteau and the Rococo period. Here, people are returning to the garden to embrace love. The painting is predominated by two large figures. One figure is suspended on the left, occupying three-quarters the length of the painting. She represents Aphrodite and is constructed from details found in her mythological world. In the lower right, the other figure reclines, representative of a war goddess giving birth to two armies which later divide and fight each other.
In essence, this painting is about love, war, and rejuvenation.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (The Garden)
In the center of the painting is the Garden set in a rural landscape just inside the woods where lovers can meet, sprites can dance, the Graces can observe, and all is overseen by a Harlequin.
It is Spring.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Courtship, Love and Family)
Sneaking to the left of the painting, a couple meet, fall in love and start a family. Difficult to see in this reproduction are certain very small details: the harlequin marionette, building blocks in different languages, and spirited flowers.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Extended Family, the Serpent and Death)
In the upper right corner of the painting the family extends to include another child; grandparents are Georgia O'Keeffe and Picasso who are joined at the hips to become the new two-headed serpent of the Garden.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Garden and The New Serpents)
The middle of the painting shows us the Garden again with the tail of its new serpent coiling down and around the tree. Next to it are the Three Graces.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Narcissism and Betrayal)
Here, just below the garden, Autumn begins and our lovers discover the pleasure of their narcissistic qualities.
They try to cover their shame with masks and impossible hands.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (The Gypsy and the Soldier and the Disintegrated Family)
On the left middle side of the painting, late Autumn begins.
Their are several references to other works in this view: The Tempest by Giorgione, The Nightmare by Fuseli, and Faust by Goethe.
A young woman is pregnant, and we may assume, alone. What were once creatures of delight and inspiration for her are now rather nightmarish.
A female takes a swing at her mate and they and their child disintegrate.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (The Lowest and Most Paranoid and a gate to Freedom)
On the piano are memories of better days when music was played. The couple have begun to meld into their environment and danger lurks.
A mother, her son and a cat linger. She is wondering about where to go if she passes through the door.
Winter is soon to come.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Winter, Temples, the Greek boat, the Birth of a War and Winter)
The mother must decide how to leave the desolation behind her. She could follow the belly of the goddess yet the goddess is bearing two armies
and it looks cold.
HIdden, there is an ancient Greek boat harbored at the temple of the goddess which could sail back to Cythera.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Tortures of the Church, Dresden, and War)
The goddess houses the temples on her thighs and births the armies necessary for war.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Escape)
From a chateau, someone escapes the deluge by sailing up the bay toward Cythera.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (New Arrivals to Cythera)
A couple rows their skiffs to shore and wonders which route to take.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Hidden Images Here and There)
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Hidden Images Here and There)
Sometimes hidden images reveal themselves with no apparent effort from the artist. An example is the dolphin swimming in the sphere of Aphrodite's head.
Other images are intentional. For instance,in the body of Aphrodite appears the city of San Francisco with its reflection, a sailboat, the sun and moon. Waves, Athens, and a mermaid become the face. There is also a Fallen Angel; its wings are a canyon, and its face, an island.
Detail from "...CYTHERA": (Om and the Fallen Angel)
Om, the instigator of this painting, is the Hermaphrodite Harlequin. It has four heads, carries the sacred ankh and a horn. Om has the ability to know the past, future, present, and the void. Om is suspended at the feet of the
floating Aphrodite.