Call to Aphrodite/Venus

15"x15" fabric and paper collage, acrylic, oil pastel and random words from 'Hymn to Aphrodite' by Sappho.

I've enjoyed the rich mythology connected to Aphrodite/Venus and have found many connections to the other Gods and planets. In this piece I travelled on Venus to the area named Ishtar Terra where I revealed remnants and found fragments of Aphrodite's  love potion bottles...as if the Goddess had a storage of these mixtures but long forgotten in this northern  region of the planet?! The words  scratched onto the dark surface  represent the Sappho poem which is part poem, prayer , supplication as well as words of admiration.

My earliest encounter with Venus (the goddess) was with the 1948 movie titled "One Touch of Venus" starring  Ava Gardner. I was very young and regularly watched old B&W movies with my sister on TV weekend afternoons. This light comedy begins as an Anatolian Venus sculpture( with arms)  is on display at a department store. One evening a lonely window dresser kisses the cold stone check of Venus and yes, Voila, she comes to life and the real story begins! I was completely impressed with this movie and even to this day I smile at the memory and also smile when I see an interestingly posed mannequin.

For now I'm leaving Venus and skipping past Mars.  It is too crowded for me on Mars with Russians and US expeditions. I'm off to the Asteroid fields between Mars and Jupiter.

Altered "Morning Departure"

22"x24" mixed media....Altered from original using Pixlr.  Ragzedge Arts......Louciao used this site to alter her photograph on her latest post and I was impressed. I decided to visit and play around with the many choices offered for free. This is an older work that I like and in the same theme of space travel so I rather enjoyed the fun of punching up the color, contrast and texture. I was going for a very very outer space feel. It was an amazing experience for me as I have never really worked with all the bells and whistles in imaging. Not sure what to do with it besides sharing but this was a needed playtime... my new Venus piece has been slow going and generally giving me fits.

Venus 460' Celsius

Six views 5"x8" measuring as a whole 15"x15", acrylic, collage, glazing. I began this piece with glazes of yellow to gold as representational of the Venus sulphuric soup atmosphere. I got myself stuck with days of timid applications of color when what I needed to do was make some bold approaches. Finally spent yesterday with applications of color, collage, ripping, gluing and marking until I had two bottles of used brushes to clean and very tired. Venus land temperatures are very high so I have these numbered views created before the (hypothetical) camera would dissolve in the heat. For the fun of playing "Where's Waldo", you might look for the last 'bug' about to be turned to funerary ash as we all know the bugs are the last to go! Stepping back from this piece I can't help but be okay with the final out come....it was a hard journey with so much adding and subtracting but now I rather like it!