Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Crew of the Argo


Crew of the Argo, 2011. 6' x 8'. Acrylic, oil stick, pencil on cardboard.

Taking imagery from old handwritten ship logs of the crew that had boarded this painting renders the names of those voyagers of the Argo. A line taken from the Greek epic poem Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes running up the right side reads:

"And then the rollers groaned under the sturdy keel as they were chafed, and round them rose up a dark smoke owing to the weight, and she glided into the sea."

Two sketches of boats can be found on the bottom of the panel. One shows the aforementioned scene of the boat being slid into the waters to venture off to storied Colchis. The other boat on top of Jason's name foreshadows his ultimate demise where the dilapidated Argo, decaying in dry dock, falls onto the sleeping hero.

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