This is my idea for a painting for the upcoming September show at Porter Mill, with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. In a departure from my painting preoccupations, I am building up a little series of paintings related to literary work; these opportunities came along by chance, but I was open to them because of my interest in art/literary relations that was my focus in graduate school.. So over the past year, I have participated in two literature-themed shows at Porter Mill ( one on Moby Dick, and one on Alice in Wonderland) and a "Scarlet Letter" show at the Salem Athenaem and a "Midsummer Night's Dream" show at TAG in Boston.
So when I first learned of the "Homer" show, I said yes right away and knew I would paint a shield (the shield of Achilles) inscribed with a quotation from the Iliad. It took me a while to decide on the quotation, but I chose the opening line, as translated by Robert Fagles. The problem was how to arrange the text in a circle so it would be readable, and in the end, I decided to use as spiral, just as I did in my painting about Moby Dick. So a few days ago, I grabbed a piece of paper and a Sharpie and started to work out the composition.
The quotation is: "Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls."
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