Persephone Rising
Persephone Rising
oil painting on canvas
40x40 inches
PERSEPHONE (Per-seph-ony) was the goddess queen of the underworld, wife of the god Haides (Hades). She was also the goddess of spring growth, who was worshipped alongside her mother Demeter in the Eleusinian Mysteries. This agricultural-based cult promised its initiates passage to a blessed afterlife.
When I painted this I was thinking of something a monk said about the middle world where souls unable to move on watch us, still attracted to the life they once had. According to him, the souls want nothing more than to have flesh so that they can feel the sun on their skin again. I envisioned her a life goddess who they worshiped and envied.
I am told that this also looks like a woman who has moved on from her past, and the men who could not satisfy her. They beg forgiveness and she is indifferent.
Thick cotton canvas. All artwork is hand signed on both front and back and sealed with a varnish.