Right!
So after twisting and turning this issue of Orchis in my mind, and visualizing two approaches, sketching the painting is.....well...lets just say like labour pains.
Every stroke, every mark seems to be wrong. Having done things like this several times before I am amazed that the flow, in any rendering I think of for this painting just doesn't seem to come.
Here are several paintings with the theme "Rape of..." Of course keep in mind that at the time these were done, the word meant "carried off." But still, the violation of self was there in the theme.
I think I know what it is though. I am following a spiritual path that I committed to paint things which are uplifting, enlightening and positive. I am a believer of the "Thoughts become things" and planting a seed of an idea can lead to negative vibrations in a person, and I have no desire to plant that seed.
Any way I portray it, an Orchis painting will be violent imagery. I am trying to picture living with such imagery, and I can't bring myself to do it. The emotional state that I become when executing any painting causes me to absorb the emotions behind it. For this, to paint Orchis, I would have to become Orchis in his violent state. I would have to feel the violation of the priestess, and feel Bacchus wathing the destruction of Orchis.
I cannot bear to take in those emotions.
So...Orchis will be shelved. Perhaps someone else may feel comfortable using the theme.
For me, I have no desire to ad such imagery to an already violent world. And I would prefer that when someone looks at one of my paintings, they feel a sense of upliftment in some way. I do not wish to rape any minds.
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