Artworks

Angels and Demons

Contents

No, this is not a Dan Brown Novel nor a Tom Hanks movie. The concept for this piece originated somewhat innocently during a visit to Arezzo’s Sunday antique market in Tuscany. My wife and our in-laws had rented an amazing place in the hills of Tuscany called La Toretta. It overlooked lake Trasemino and the valley below, where Hannibal once almost defeated the Roman Empire after crossing the Alps on elephants.

The Cortona Experience

When I was a young man I was lucky enough to be able to study in Cortona, Italy for a semester, and what a formative experience that was. Cortona is the sister city of Athens, GA, where I went to college. Cortona partners with the University of Georgia studies abroad program, which both my late Mother Anta and I participated in. A story for another time, but ever since then my love affair with Cortona and Italy has continued, and my family and I have re-visited Cortona and the environs several times.

The Arezzo Sunday Market

The largest nearby town is called Arezzo, and by US standards it is a sleepy small town. But every Sunday, Arezzo comes to life with their amazing antiques market, and the source images for a number of my artworks came from a photo stroll through this market and its many wondrous sights.

Mythology Juxtapositions

As is often the case for me, the juxtaposition of angels vs. demons only became apparent for me when applying my photo distortion technique. The tools I use for this let me gradually manipulate and observe elements of a photograph as they change their position and relationship to each other. Thus, suddenly, one of the 2 angels in the source photo transformed into something decidedly demonic. And I thought that was very fitting, given the mythology of Lucifer being a fallen angel himself.