Why Am I Painting Myths & Legends
It’s been a long summer! If you’re anything like me you start the year with the best of intentions and then the second it gets busy, it’s a mad dash to the end. Well, THIS year the mad dash started in April and ended LAST WEEK. So, I’m both wrecked but excited (and terrified) to have some time off.
The Winter is for thinking; The Summer is for Painting!
This year it’s been all about Myths and Legends. Once I figured out how to paint people well, I got a bit bored of pretty faces. I don’t think my work has any sort of grand philosophy, some deeper message or metaphor. I’m interested in people, in stories, in the quirks and oddities of places and what makes communities tick.
My husband says I don’t like ‘good’ books. And after faking it for years I think he’s right. It’s all about a big juicy plot (even if the writing is bad).
And it’s the same with my art. I felt a bit obliged to make my work about feminism, or the environment or social justice of one kind or another. But it’s not. It’s about getting excited about everyday things and making them special. Showing people why they’re special. Connecting on a one to one, not on some grand scale, but keeping that enchantment alive.
I’ve always loved twinkly lights. And I’ve ALWAYS loved a good story, and the best stories are timeless. The BEST stories are universal. Which is what draws me to Myths and Legends. They’re hyper-local and universal all at the same time. There’s something innate about them that they occur independently again and again across the world. There’s something so powerful in them that they spread like wildfire when cultures encounter each other.
I never understood when I tried to research Greek or Roman myth, how there could be multiple versions of the same story. One must be wrong. But now I know it’s because every new place or people or individual that hears a story interprets it to suit their own circumstances, or world view or plot! Is Persephone abducted or does she run away, it depends on what you want to say about women. Is Brigit an Irish Goddess or a Saint or both? King Arthur, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan and Fionn Mac Cumhaill are all asleep under mountains somewhere ready to save their people ….. someday. Do they’re people even still exist?
This Summer I’ve been lucky to explore Myths & Legends all over Europe (and a sneaky one in Mexico too!) I’ve painted nine so far in the series, a series I think will last in a changing and evolving way into the next few years.
The source material is endless; I just need to find THE WALLS!
And in a perfect world, the communities to go with them. Researching stories online and in books is only a shadow of hearing them from the mouths of people who learnt them from their own mothers and grandmothers.
If you have a wall or a story to tell, let me know!
Painting Genesis at Southend City Jam. Photo by Elno