Technicolor Angels

Ariel, Giclee Print, (8.75 x 6.5 in.)
Jophiel, Giclee Print, (8.7 x 6.5 in.)
























I have completed ten collages created from monotype papers around the subject of Angels.  These images will be exhibited as an editioned series of Giclee Prints in my studio during the 2011 Vashon Island Holiday Studio Tour.  Above and below are four of the ten images.

Winged beings have played mythic roles in many cultures through time. Zetos and Kalais, the winged sons of Boreas, God of the North Wind, were two of Jason’s companions in the Argnautica.  Though Hermes, Zeus’s express messenger, wore his wings on his boots, his Olympian compatriots Nike and Cupid wore theirs where we have come to expect, sprouting from their shoulders.   That’s generally where you will find them attached in depictions of Valkyries in Norse tradition, Faeries in Celtic myth and of course to Cherubim, Seraphim and depictions of Angels in contemporary Jewish and Christian tradition.

The English word angel, derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, means messenger.  No where in the Bible are these divine messengers described as winged nor are they represented in that way in early Christian art.  Sometime in the later part of the 4th century however, Angels appear suddenly to have grown them or at least artwork began depicting divine messengers complete with wings and another fashionable innovation of the period, halos. 

My Angel imagery is primarily inspired by the paintings of the early Italian Renaissance artist Fra Angelico.  I have always admired his various depictions of the Annunciation and his rendering of Angel Gabriel's technicolor wings.


Gabriel, Giclee Print, (8.75 x 6.5 in.)
Michael, Giclee Print, (8.75 x 6.5 in.)



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