Acrylic & oil on canvas.
91cm x 56cm unframed.
Ready to hang.
 
This painting is about escape and freedom and is inspired by Persephone's imagined escape from Hades. The mythological story of Persephone is an interesting one because it isn’t really about her. She is merely a reflection of those around her, namely her mother and husband. Hades abducts Persephone and her mother, Demeter, scours the earth unleashing her anger on unsuspecting victims she encounters. We can only imagine what Persephone is feeling as the surviving stories do not tell it from her point of view. Finally, after some negotiations between the male characters, a compromise is reached whereby Hades will let Persephone go to her mother on the condition that she return to him for one-third of the year.
 
Like the fairytales that were to follow, the protagonist has little agency in her own story. So in this painting I imaged Persephone taking it upon herself to faciliate her own escape from the underworld. She runs away, towards the light, with a wilted flower in her hand (a remaining vestige of her mother).