Jocasta Five

This is a painting about paint manipulation and process as well as an abstract response to a story. Asymmetry and inconsistencies are intentional.

The painting process involved the application and partial removal of a blue glaze, the outcome of which is uncertain therefore the painting may not be fully dry enough to leave the studio for some time.

The central motif, developed from pattern on ancient Greek ceramics, represents Jocasta, an essential figure in the Greek tragedies that surround the Oedipus myths. When there is neither history nor a definitive version of a story then the imagination can spin imprecise impressions, evoking happenings in a bronze age palace and suggestions of mysterious beliefs and rituals.  

There is a hint of an outline of a shield taken from a bronze age Theban coin

Bib. Three Theban Plays by Sophocles, circa 450 BCE, and Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes, 2017.