Before
we get into this week's post, I have a special announcement!
My
senior class at the University of Hartford is having a gallery show
on May 2nd
to showcase all of our thesis projects. We are having the show on
campus in the Joseloff Gallery, a privately owned gallery. Putting up
a show requires a lot of effort and funding.
We
have set up an Indiegogo, and are now accepting any and all donations
for the next week! Everything helps, so if you can, please make a
donation here.
Thank
you in advance!
And
if you are in the area, please join us for the opening reception of
the show on Saturday, May 2nd,
from 5-7pm at the University of Hartford.
Now
for this week's post, the finale in my Sicily series:
On
our last bus ride to the airport from Taormina, our tour guide Rosa
gave one last history lesson. This time she spoke about the creation
myth of the island itself. I tried to take notes while listening, but
I was enraptured in Rosa's telling of the story, the Trinacria.
I'll
summarize as best I can:
Three
Nymphs were misbehaving (as nymphs often do) and Athena called them
to Mount Olympus. There, they were Zeus' prisoners, awaiting their
judgement by the God.
Zeus
forgot they were there, and many years passed as they waited
patiently to hear their fate.
One
night, the Nymphs overheard three other gods discussing who among
them was the greater god. Each beheld what they were the god of; one
of soil, one of fruit, and one of flowers, and they argued why each
was the greatest.
The
next day, the Nymphs could think of nothing but holding soil, fruit,
and flowers in their hands. They longed to see Earth again!
They waited until night, and while Zeus was asleep, the Nymphs decided to sneak out of
Mount Olympus to gather a sample of each of the items, with the
intent to bring it back to Olympus.
The
Nymphs took with them a basket and descended to Earth, where they
gathered the three samples.
But
they lingered on Earth for too long! Dawn was coming and with it,
Apollo, lifting the veil of night. As the Nymphs flew towards
Olympus, they crashed into Apollo, where the three of them fell into
the ocean, dropping the basket and all it's contents in the middle of
them.
Zeus,
becoming aware of their transgressions, was furious! He took from the
Nymphs the life from their lungs and they sank where the fell to the
bottom of the ocean.
Athena
deemed this action too harsh, and so breathed life back into them.
Instead, using the contents the Nymphs had gathered, Athena turned
them into an island. The Nymphs were reborn as the island of Sicily,
and the three corners of the island were where each of the Nymphs
fell.
I
am of Greek and Sicilian descent, though I've always been very
connected to my Greek heritage in particular. However, being in
Sicily led me to a sense of belonging, a sense of an ancestral home,
and that feeling was more powerful than I had anticipated it to be. I
was fascinated to learn how much Greek history shaped Sicily,
originally known as "Magna Graecia," or Greater Greece.
After learning of Trinacria,
I
knew I had to illustrate the mythos as a reflection of my time in
Sicily, and a celebration of my heritage.
Rather
than illustrating a single moment in the story, I chose to take a
more allegorical approach. The composition was designed with the
shape of Sicily in mind. If you lay over a map of the island, the
positions of the three Nymphs correlate to the three corners of the
island, as they do in the story.
Each
of the Nymphs holds one of the objects they were collecting; soil,
flowers, and fruit, and one Nymph holds the basket. Inside of the
basket, I chose three fruits (well, two fruits and one vegetable)
that are staples in Sicilian culture, and were a large part of my
culinary experience there; grapes, blood oranges, and artichoke.
Finally, the lighting is of course the break of dawn with a low,
golden sun casting long shadows, indicative of Apollo's coming. The basket is positioned in between all three figures, and
all elements of the piece hint towards the immediate fate of the
Nymphs; the birth of Sicily.
I
hope you've enjoyed my posts the past month, as I've enjoyed
recollecting the experience.
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