Blog

3/14/2023

New work. 

I've been working on a new series - for now I'm calling it Modern Mythos. I've been really interested in mythology and story telling from around the world, and the way that women have been portrayed in them throughout time. I'm giving the drawings a more modern feel and playing with giving them scars, tattoos, piercings, normal human bodies (of all shapes and sizes) and modern tech like cell phones. There's this really relevant connection to the past and present in mythology and story telling. We pass on legacies and language through stories. As well as culture, lessons, morals. It's a fascinating subject.

Most of my work focuses on women and uses the female figure to express ideas about human behavior and emotion, and this series also falls into that realm. In the past it has been largely about my personal story of healing and growing through traumatic experiences, but this series explores others. Pushes beyond my bubble. Some questions I have been asking are: 

How are these mythological goddesses portrayed? Negative/Positive? Capable/Helpless? Sane/Crazy? 

Are there similarities in their stories? 

How do their stories compare to the way women are portrayed in the United States today? Do they at all?

The series so has 3 drawings: 

Oshun is an orisha, or deity, of the Yoruba people. She is a river goddess and is associated with water, purity, love, fertility, and sensuality. There are many myths about Oshun and in most of them she is depicted as a protector, savior, and nurturer of humanity. Even considered a central figure in the creation of humans. It is interesting to me that a repeated point in all of the reading I have done about Oshun is her beauty and sensuality.

Hina is a powerful goddess in Polynesian mythology. There are many different stories and names associated with Hina and they vary depending on region. In each version, Hina is a powerful and supernatural goddess that rules over a specific entity. In Hawaii, Hina is goddess of the moon and mother of the demi-god Maui. 

Itzpapalotl is an Aztec goddess whose name means "obsidian butterfly" or "clawed butterfly". She was a warrior goddess who ruled over Tamoanchan, the birthplace of the human race according to Mesoamerican cultures. She was a powerful sorceress who could shape-shift from beautiful woman, to butterfly or moth, to skeleton warrior. 

I am also planning on including the story of Shamaran (a Turkish myth about a magical creature who is half woman and half snake) and a fun modern "reboot" of Medusa.