the title kind of gives it away
Acrylic on masonite, 30 x 60 inches (2011)

This work is a take-off on the work of Italian painter Sandro Botticelli's (1445 to 1510) Birth of Venus painted in 1486. His work was evidently fashioned after a long admiration of a female friend, a longing evidently unfulfilled. The painting has been so copied and parodied almost to the level of cliché. I mean the artist and image no disrespect as I am using its inherent theme about timeless beauty to foster even more beauty . . .

Venus is a figment of Roman mythology (Aphrodite in the Greek version), the daughter of Jupiter (Zeus) and paramour Dione, the Titan god(dess) of the Oracle Dodona. Venus was originally a goddess of fertility, but the agents of mythology later made her the embodiment of love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and military victory. A goddess for everything! She was also the mother of Aeneas of Trojan War fame, the latter going on to father Romulus, one of the kids raised by a wolf to everlasting fame in the founding of Rome.

The voluptuous beauty shown is a modernized Venus coming ashore on the half-shell. She has aquired more modern garments and their strategic coverings remove the need for knee-length hair! She is almost life size to boot!

Please do not reproduce the images in this display.
Contact Douglas Laing Arts & Letters for further information.
P.O. Box 659, Winchester, Ontario. K0C 2K0   613-774-5180
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