Moirai

I’m usually working on my own mythology, my own realm of created characters. Stories in mythology inspire me, though I may not be conscious of it. -Anne Rice

Moirai
encaustic mixed media
12×24 inch diptych

I have been so busy lately with finishing up work and preparing for my show coming up at Klindon Hall at the Benedictine University and getting ready for my Books of Images and Wax 3-day workshop out in Washington that I have been lagging behind in writing here. I even forgot to write about this painting after it was done! I’ve never done that before. And I am surprised by the fact that I forgot because this painting was one of those paintings where I shifted course a bit, pushed through, and learned something.

Well, I actually do feel that I learn something new with each painting. After all, painting is always about finding solutions. But some paintings stick out more than others.

With each painting that I completed with this bowls series, I have been moving more towards abstraction. My bowls are still there, but sometimes it is just a suggestion of the vessel shape, or it’s buried under transparent layers of paint. And then there’s the laying down of the paint with this painting. I wanted it to be looser, more spontaneous. While that may seem easy to do, for me it’s not! I like to smooth things out, create a harmonious balance. But I am learning to create balance or a harmony in spontaneity. While I was working on this one, I texted one of my FUSEDChicago friends, Emily Rutledge, and jokingly told her that I was trying to channel my “Inner Emily Rutledge”. I have always been drawn to Emily’s work- the energy of it in both the palette, the brushwork, and mark making. And I really was thinking of her work while I was painting.

As for the title, I have always been drawn to the metaphor of life being a woven tapestry. Each person and event being a thread that contributes to the overall weaving. I recall, too, something I learned a long time ago, that in a Navajo rug there is always an imperfection woven into the corner. From what I remember it’s where the Spirit moves in and out of the rug. I’ve always been intrigued by that practice. And then there’s the idea of the three Fates in Greek mythology, from where the title comes from.

In Greek mythology, the Moirai—often known in English as the Fates—were the white-robed incarnations of destiny. Their number became fixed at three: Clotho (spinner), Lachesis (allotter) and Atropos (unturnable). They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. -from www.citelighter.com/history/history/knowledgecards/the-fates

When I started looking up mythology on destiny and fate I was intrigued by the fact that in all the stories across different cultures around the world, the beings that held fate in their hands were always women and they were also weavers. Very interesting…I have always been so fascinated by creation stories and the mythologies that humans have told and retold throughout the ages to explain ourselves to ourselves and to understand our place in this world.