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by Vanessa Conte
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The only difference between a monster and a man is the distance between heaven and earth. For three thousand years, mankind has attempted to rationalize mysterious phenomena like weather, illness and death by inventing gods and fables to explain their existence. Many of these deities have taken the form of a man, or a combination of man and beast. The featured artist in this month's exhibition plays with the idea of mythology, borrowing figurative imagery from ancient Greece to Native America.
Featuring work by Sheila Isham. |
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Sheila Isham
Sheila Isham relates man to nature by illustrating their harmonious coexistence on canvas. The artist uses Hindu iconography, most frequently featuring the bull, an ancient sign of vitality, life and masculinity. In Isham's paintings, the bull often appears in symbiotic balance with images of women.
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367 Cosmic Earth, Bull Series LVII (1992)
Sheila Isham |
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"My work is a continued exploration of the cyclical nature of life and our endless desire to break out of earthly limits." Isham flattens the space between her figures and animals by layering them, one on top of one another, physically shrinking the distance, or difference, between the human and the iconic image of the bull. The representation of virility in the bovine is an attempt at relating an unintelligible idea. The Hindus honor the bull as provider of life, a tiller and fertilizer of the soil; worshipping the bull is the human means by which to understand and maintain new life.
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358 Cosmic Earth, Bull Series XXXIX (1992)
Sheila Isham |
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Isham's Cosmic Oasis series is a reverie of the animal spirit. Groups of tropical animals are portrayed as semi-abstract, mystical beings. The artist painted their bodies as glowing, to depict them as enlightened and sensitive to their connection with the earth. "While their physical forms are sensual and of this world, their spirits soar to one beyond."
Sign the guestbook of Sheila Isham. |
397 Cosmic Earth, #18 Oasis Series (1998)
Sheila Isham |
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