I love still life and this painting is very important to me. Many times, while assembling and arranging elements of a still life and coming up with a visual concept, a story begins to suggest itself. No longer am I just dealing with a pear, a candlestick and a knife but with props and characters (warning: this is what happens to you if you stare at fruit. Do not attempt this at home). That's what happened with this painting. For fun I placed one of the pears on top of the candle stick. I wondered, "Why would someone put a pear on top of a candle stick? Maybe the pear put itself there. Maybe it's proud...or powerful....". And so it went (I assure you I'm sane).
Not long before I had read the short legend of the Sword of Damocles to my two youngest, with its warning about envying those in positions of power, those who seem to have everything. When I stuck the knife in the cutting board to see if it would give me the vertical element I needed, in a flash the knife became the sword, the pear on the pedestal became Dionysius the king. The rest is a meditation on leadership and it's burdens and pitfalls. Feel free to meditate on it too if you like.
The Sword of Damocles was chosen for the Ben Franklin Crafts Create Award in the Academy Art Museum of Easton's annual Members Exhibit by Heather Harvey, Assitant Professor of Art at Washington College, Chestertown, MD.
I love still life and this painting is very important to me. Many times, while assembling and arranging elements of a still life and coming up with a visual concept, a story begins to suggest itself. No longer am I just dealing with a pear, a candlestick and a knife but with props and characters (warning: this is what happens to you if you stare at fruit. Do not attempt this at home). That's what happened with this painting. For fun I placed one of the pears on top of the candle stick. I wondered, "Why would someone put a pear on top of a candle stick? Maybe the pear put itself there. Maybe it's proud...or powerful....". And so it went (I assure you I'm sane).
Not long before I had read the short legend of the Sword of Damocles to my two youngest, with its warning about envying those in positions of power, those who seem to have everything. When I stuck the knife in the cutting board to see if it would give me the vertical element I needed, in a flash the knife became the sword, the pear on the pedestal became Dionysius the king. The rest is a meditation on leadership and it's burdens and pitfalls. Feel free to meditate on it too if you like.
The Sword of Damocles was chosen for the Ben Franklin Crafts Create Award in the Academy Art Museum of Easton's annual Members Exhibit by Heather Harvey, Assitant Professor of Art at Washington College, Chestertown, MD.