The Landscape of the Mind

This past month I had a particularly enlightening trip down memory lane, inspired by the sale of a favorite piece from a previous series.

Athena Stays the Dawn ©lesliepetersonsapp

Athena Stays the Dawn was done for a small series based on The Odyssey. It was done for a specific show, and after it was done I decided to go back to my work with film noir. But I have been inspired by classical literature and mythology throughout my artistic career.

When in college I did a series of art based on Shakespeare’s Richard III- I was so enamored with Sir Laurence Olivier’s movie I decided to create paintings with the characters in different contexts and times. 

Richard III College work by Leslie Peterson Sapp

 

When in my 30’s, I created work based on mythology from ancient Greece and pagan Europe.

The Green Man ©lesliepetersonsapp

Offering ©lesliepetersonsapp

I love and enjoy observational painting, but I seem compelled to tell a story with my art, to create a narrative. I am driven to explore and share the landscape of my imagination. The sale of Athena Stays the Dawn brought back memories of all the ways I have used art to tell stories. It seems that the act of telling a story is more important than the trappings of time and place and specific characters. 

It has been said that film noir are modern day myths.

Vacancy, hand painted intaglio

The characters have become archetypes in our collective imagination. Similar to the myths and stories of old, the characters are driven by forces larger than themselves and are so very, very human. Often being brought down by their own drives and weaknesses, they are driven by a futile effort to cheat Fate. The themes are an undying fact of what it is to be human. 

For now, I am entirely caught up in the dark labyrinth of film noir. But who knows what stories my future art will tell?

 

If you are interested in seeing my work based on The Odyssey, visit this page on my website.

If you want to read posts about it, here are some links to my blogposts about it.

My New Series Based on The Odyssey 

Why the Odyssey? 

The Land of the Lotus Eaters

Penelope, the Matchless Queen of Cunning

The Song of the Sirens!  

Athena, Telemachus and the Origin of the Word “Mentor”

An Inspiring Trip to Greece!

My husband and I took a trip to a place I've wanted to go for a long time- Greece! We visited mainly Napflio and the Peloponnes Peninsula, the island of Hydra, up to Delphi, then Athens.

Some of you may remember that I love ancient history, and that I did a series of art based on The Odyssey. It was sensational to be in and around the place where The Iliad and The Odyssey was conceived, sung, shared, and eventually written down. In fact, we visited the ancient site of Mycenae, which was the palace complex where Agamemnon himself lived and ruled.

The "Funerary Mask of Agamemnon" from Mycenae, housed at The Archeological Museum in Athens.

(If you'd like to see some of the inspiring art I saw during my trip to Greece, check out my post on my facebook page.)
Being in Greece lent depth and richness to my understanding of The Odyssey. One experience I had was the realization that my conception of the space and atmosphere was generalized and lacking in sensitivity. It was fanciful, but vague.

"The Land of the Lotus Eaters" Leslie Peterson Sapp

The sense I have now is the astounding ruggedness of the place, how rocky mountain slopes charge down and continue deep into the sea.

Delphi, Greece

I also did not have a sense of the palette. These parts of Greece are dry dry dry, and the rocks are pale and crumbly. I suppose the pale rock is part of why the sea is so green-blue.

Greece, somewhere between Epidavros and Poros

The artist whom I can think of who really got a great take on what it feels like to be a westerner, idealizing ancient Greece, is Puvis de Chavannes, a French artist active in the late 19th century.

"The Shepherd's Song" Puvis de Chavannes, 1891

"Patriotism" Puvis de Chavannes, 1893

"Young Girls by the Sea", Puvis de Chavannes, 1879

Also, Picasso captured it, perhaps with more individuality and sophistication, in many of his early works:

"Acrobat on a Ball" Picasso, 1901

"Two Adolescents", Picasso, 1906

"Boy Leading a Horse", Picasso, 1905-6

Although I am committed to doing more Film Noir works for the time being, I am wondering what will transpire if I decide to do more Ancient Literature work in the future. One very inspiring object I saw during my travels is a late Hellenistic funerary urn at the Archeological Museum.

Who knows?

Athena, Telemachus and the Origin of the Word “Mentor”

Telemachus, walking the beach now, far from others, 

washed his hands in the foaming surf and prayed to Pallas: 

“Dear god, hear me! Yesterday you came to my house, 

you told me to ship out on the misty sea and learn 

if father, gone so long, is ever coming home …

Athena came to his prayer from close at hand, 

for all the world with Mentor’s build and voice, 

and she urged him on with winging words: “Telemachus, 

you’ll lack neither courage nor sense from this day on…”

"Telemacheia" Leslie Peterson Sapp 16"x20" Collage painting on panel.

And so Athena, daughter of Zeus, assured him. 

No lingering now—he heard the goddess’ voice— 

but back he went to his house with aching heart 

I love the way the gods appear in mortal form throughout The Odyssey. Sometimes it is Athena, sometimes Hermes, sometimes they appear as strangers, sometimes as people known to the character in question. There is a common theme in each appearance; the character meets a person who acts as a guide or helper. After this guide or helper leaves, the character realizes they have not been talking to a mortal person, but a god in disguise. The cloaked gods are described as having a numinous quality, or being beautiful, or glittering, or youthful. In this piece I attempt to express the simultaneous presence of mortal and divine with the figure of Mentor and the face of Athena in the sea and sky. 

"Telemachus knelt where the grey water broke on the sand" W. Heath Robinson

It is not my intention to tell you the entire plot of The Odyssey here. If you want a little background you can always visit cliffnotes.com (yes, cliff notes!) to get the context of the plot. What I want to show you is why I am inspired by this scene, and also to show you other artists' versions.

At this point in the poem, Athena has decided to go to Ithaca and advise Odysseus’ youthful son Telemachus. I am touched by Telemachus, who has grown up without a father, and longs to find him.

"Athena and Telemachus" lithograph by Marc Chagall, 1975

Prince Telemachus, 

sitting among the suitors, heart obsessed with grief. 

He could almost see his magnificent father, here … 

in the mind’s eye—if only he might drop from the clouds 

and drive these suitors all in a rout throughout the halls 

and regain his pride of place and rule his own domains! 

Daydreaming so as he sat among the suitors

Telemachus and King Nestor. Apulian krater. Mid-4th century BC. 

Athena persuades Telemachus, recently come of age, to go on a journey in search of news of his father.

Telemachus is gripped with self doubt. So, he goes down to the beach to pray. He is approached by the form of Mentor, a friend of his father.

Telemachus’ courage and conviction are revived. We all need encouragement and guidance. Sometimes we turn to those in our lives, and sometimes we turn to a spiritual practice. And sometimes it feels as though the divine universe has sent us someone to help us on our way… like a mentor.