Ariadne's Clew - 2003
(Click on picture to supersize)
This is the first of what I plan will be a series of paintings. First, thematically, all will deal with the notion that it is the mighty who write the histories. Hence, they look at what the reality behind some oft-told myths might have been. For those unfamiliar with the myth, Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. Minos had Daedalus build a Labyrinth, a house of winding passages, in which he imprisoned the Minotaur, a carnivorous, half-man, half-bull monster. Minos required tribute from Athens in the form of young men and women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Theseus, an Athenian, volunteered to accompany one of these groups in order to slay the fearsome beast. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus, and gave him a clew of thread, which he unraveled as he made his way through the Labyrinth. Thus, he was able to kill the Minotaur and find his way back out again. That, at least, is how Theseus might have related the story. In this painting we see an entirely different possibility. At another level, I have always been intrigued by the pop-culture "op-art" of the 1960s and 1970s, but have sought a way to present it as an integral part of a more complex composition. The visual conundrum presented by the optical components provide an interesting format against which to explore the interrelationships between pattern, color, and movement. Painting is 36" X 48", acrylic on stretched canvas, nicely framed in a silver-colored wooden frame.
This painting also figures prominently in my novel, also named Ariadne's Clew, and is reproduced (in black and white) in that book.
Here are a few detail shots:
