Transfiguration; Woman and Myth                          

                                                                                                               Susan M. Shields                                                               

 

 

The two most influential forces on a young developing child are initial motherly love, followed by an introduction to and inculcation into the omnipresent father culture.  This cultural system of birth uses mythology and religion to convey messages which greatly affect how the young mind of the child develops.  For instance, as little girls, many women are taught that Eve caused Death, Pandora brought Evil, and Venus is better off as a sex symbol for man’s enjoyment-- than as a powerful symbol of fertility for the veneration of humankind.  

 

My interest in exposing derogatory cultural beliefs about women has led me to paint Eve, Pandora, and Venus, each in three stand-alone panels, looking back through the ages at the changing cultural interpretations of her image. First I expose the solidly patriarchal myth as we know it today. Secondly, I reveal the older story behind the myth. Finally I uproot a deeper yet, more clandestine truth-- from a time when the Goddess was revered.  From then to now, successive revisions of the myths surrounding Eve, Pandora and Venus have modeled the feminine form to fit the patriarchal mold.  And, as time progressed, there became an increasingly missing figure.  This missing aspect is the culturally absent spirit of The Great Mother Archetype, whom they have extinguished. 

 

 

I reignite the feminine spirit in my paintings, through the use of warm and metallic oil paints.  Each mythological figure radiates the feminine spiritual glow of the Goddess. To me, this illumination is like a still-burning ember, kept lit by the constant effort of women still living in omnipresent father cultures.  To best depict each individual story, as well and the overall transfiguration of the feminine through these myths, my color palettes and over-all value keys vary.  Across the body of work, the constants are a representational style, and a single depicted Goddess on each individual panel.