Nuba Mythos was an exploration of the evolution of the african american culture. intersections, tension and art of african and european culture. inspirations of classical european art and african culture brought in stories and inspiration from classical art of the renaissance. The works are derived from themes that were used through the renaissance, stories whos origins crossed several cultures and religions. The paintings of Nuba Mythos focussed Primaritly on the love of the greek gods. The rape of Europa and the Ledia and the swan are stories of Zues the king of the gods seducing mortal worman.
The mythos series began with the idao of taking a modern day myth like Star Wars and completely retelling it. The first painting in the series was inspired by the Rape of the Sabine women, a theme recreated by serval masters. I created a painting entitled rape of Nuba.
” A Long time ago in a land far far away, live a king name Gau, his queen Io, and thier daughter Callisto. One day Andromeda is visited by Zues the king of the gods in the form of a white swan. Zues tells Leda that she will be responsible for the birth of a new people. She tell her mother and father who fear for her sanity until witness Zues’ visitations for themselves. Believeing they can save thier daughter from Zues they are cursed to wander the earth as a milk cow and her hand. After the king and queen’s disappearance Andromeda left to rule on her own, guided by Zues she unwittingly Leda her people into captivitiy. ”
The stories like the art pull together many influences and set a stage for continuing series of art that recontextualizes the stories of the Gods. Afrodasia was the first phase of a ythe art Nub Mythos project to paint afro inspired works. The process began with a series of painting sketches called the obsidian zodiac. the sketches were and exploration of color, form and gesture. The peices began as a project to create a series of ziodiac images to display at One Heart Cafe a local coffee shop. The xodica idea evolved into doing representations of african people, allowing the zodiac images to come though as back drops to the sketches. These loose african imagary gave the work a urban tribal feel. Chuck Close inspired colors help to fills some of the negative spaces giving the images a tile feel. Many of the the visual themes which I develped in the zodiac series were worked into the 4 main pieces of the Nuba Mythos.
