EOS AND HER SISTER

The first gods I noticed
were Eos and her sister.
They stayed outside though.

Skulking,
lurking
and spying
in the windows.

Trying to be inconspicuous.

But really,
can dawn slip over the eastern horizon
or sunset down the west unnoticed?

THE SPHINX

I was walking up 5th Avenue
heading to Bryant Park
Humming that song by Robyn Hitchcock about Balloon Man
when I noticed something was wrong,
different at the library entrance.

One of the lions was missing, gone from his pedestal.

Sphinx, the sphinx was on it instead.
The Sphinx!

I was nonplussed
I had thought she was dead.
I had seen her suicide rock in Greece
on the road to Corinth.
A tragedy to be placed on Heracles shoulders
But now I guess not,
since here she was
playing the cougar on 5th Avenue.

Sphinx suicide rock, Greece

I’ll tell you how it started.
Standing in a shaft of light
I had a Delphic moment.
Feeling like Ovid or Homer
or perhaps Andy Warhol
I said, “O sing Muse”
sing of a time when
gods walked the earth like mortals.
And with my words they did.
The muses sang and
the gods walked.
Now my muses haunt my studio
dogging my steps
and offering recriminations
if I venture out of it.

Introducing “NY Muse”

NY Muse, my latest project, is inspired by both Greek mythology and our current culture. The works in this project find their inspiration from many sources including: a Public Works project, Dr. Seuss, the doomed Edie Sedgwick (an Andy Warhol associate), a Vogue magazine fashion photo spread, Jimi Hendricks, and the New York Public Library lions.

The Neoteric poets* wrote about their culture in a colloquial manner — yet with allusions to the classics — expecting their readers to enjoy the work on many levels. My work, which I describe as Popteric*, marries colloquial and classical, traditional painting and installation, and my intention is that my viewers also enjoy it in its many dimensions.

The premise of NY Muse is that standing in my studio one day, I said the fatal words of the ancient poets: “O sing Muse.” They did, and I was inspired. NY Muse is the result. Like Ovid’s Metamorphosis, the project is comprised of many small stories. These stories feature re-workings of original myths alongside newly created myths involving the Greek deities and mythological personae, set against the backdrop of New York City. As an artist, I see these new myths first as “ekphrasis”* developed into paintings, and then morphed into literature and installation.

*Popteric is a word I invented to describe the linking of the Classics with pop culture of 1970’s New York City.

Neoteric poets: Ancient Roman writers including Ovid and Catullus; Ekphrasis: an ancient Greek word meaning “picture phrase.”