Tears of Medusa

This is actually my final painting for the oil painting class I took this semester. Though I feel more could be done to it, I also feel that it is at a stage of completion.

Ever since I was little, I have liked Greek Mythology. The stories and myths were just so enchanting and really sucked me in. However, the idea of a woman with snakes for hair scared me to death. When I went about figuring out a theme to focus on for my final project, I knew I wanted to do something related to mythology and Medusa was the first character who came to mind. She was so iconic in Greek mythology and was always portrayed in either a grotesque or sensual way. After looking through her back story on Wikipedia, I knew how I wanted to portray her. She was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple, and Athena, in the heat of rage, changed her into a monster. I hated that story. Medusa always seems so calculating and evil in every representation of her that I wondered what it would be like if she were just a regular girl. Really, when you think about it, she probably wasn't killing off all these people because she wanted to, but because she had no choice. And after thinking it though, I realized I wanted to portray Medusa as a lonely teenage girl, caught up in the wrath of the selfish gods.

So, the sea represents Poseidon, the reason her life ended up so horrible, and the blazing sun represents the wrath of the gods.

Sorry for the unnecessarily long explanation... -_-

Tears of Medusa by Kristen Monk