New Rochelle Art Exhibit Reworks Greek Myths

New Rochelle High School students had the opportunity to speak with the artist.

By Michael Woyton (Patch Staff) – March 11, 2012

Students at New Rochelle High School got the chance to speak to an artist mounting a show inspired by Greek mythology Friday.

Marie Hines Cowan brought her art to the Museum of Arts and Culture for an exhibit that will be up through April 5.

Musings: the beginnings of an epic, she said, could be described as Greek mythology reworked for modern times.

Cowan, a New Rochelle artist, said literature has always been a major interest of hers. One of her favorite books is D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.

The figures represented in the works are all acquaintances, but the creatures she has painted are not all taken directly from mythology.

For example, Cowan said, while Aurora—or Eos in Greek—is the goddess of the dawn, “there is no goddess of the sunset.”

So she created Aurora’s Sister to make up for that.

One painting that stood out to the students was Nike in a Party Dress.

Cowan said she wanted to depict “Winged Victory” but in a non-traditional way.

“So I imagined in my mind a little story,” she said, where, according to the exhibit brochure, the painting “depicts a joyous Nice who has broken away from her duties,” while the cloud formations behind give her the appearance of being able to fly.

Cowan said she enjoys speaking with art students, taking away different thoughts from them.

“They come at things from an early perspective,” she said. “I get ideas from everybody.”

Alexi Brock, an art teacher at the high school, said the school is fortunate to be the only high school in the state with a legitimate museum, because it gives the students a opportunity to learn from living artists such as Cowan.

“Not only do the kids get to exhibit their works,” Brock said, “but we can have artists speak to the kids.”

She said Cowan had the opportunity to talk to beginners up to the more advanced students.

Julian Goday, 15, a 10th grader, is taking a beginning art class that is concentrating on pottery and other functional art.

“I like the shading,” Goday said, referring to the paintings. “Each one is different.”

Freshman Eric Hochberg, 14, thought the exhibit was interesting.

“Some of the paintings really stood out,” he said.

Elizabeta Luma, 15, a freshman, said she liked the way the different paintings had different meanings.

Her favorite was Nike in a Party Dress, an oil on canvas painting from 2011.

“She looks likes she is free spirited,” Luma said, “an independent woman.

The exhibit is part of Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives: Poetry—Drama—Dialogue, a month-long presentation the The Museum of Arts & Culture and the New Rochelle Public Library. For more information, visit www.dbmac.org or www.nrpl.org.