Remembering Venus





I was just a child when I had the privilege of seeing the painting of Venus with my own eyes. It was with delight that I took in the statues and the paintings of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The city where my father was born. I have often reflected back to those earliest artistic influences I can remember, and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church ranked very high on that list. You don't soon forget those images. Large looming, bold, bursting with strength and sexuality, and emotion. Other works played a more subtle role on my psyche, artworks of the Madonna strikingly spiritual, the expanse of entire ceilings and walls adorned with gold framed paintings and murals highly charged with religious devotion and ethereal angels and guardians. I recall that these images completely enveloped me in a child's wonderment and awe. I saw a world that I dreamed of living in, and maybe, just maybe, this began my attraction to art.

While we search for our artistic identity, I think part of that search involves much reflection and soul searching. Especially when searching for our own unique voice. I know it is the art of Michelangelo, Botticelli, and da Vinci, which held me in a powerful grip of amazement and inspiration. For me, these artists captured something even a child could understand; the human experience. Just by virtue of the fact that we each are born with a human body and spiritual soul, we are subject to all the things we see in art. I knew that, even as a child!

It is a wonderful experience to search for those moments when you knew that you were touched by a calling. It isn't always easy to answer that call, sometimes nobody ever hears your reply, but still, you have to follow your inner voice. Wherever it leads you.