Offspring Of Tiamat

Offspring Of Tiamat - The Fomorii Union
2009
W20" x H16"
Acrylic Glazes And Egg Tempera On Canvas

Credit should be given to my friend Helena Nelson-Reid, this was her comment about the work, and I think likely the best interpretion: "Tiamat's children: Born to the sea, they drift upon undulating waves of shimmering, phosphorescent krill mirroring the starry night skies above, while others resemble the bizarre creatures dwelling deep beneath the surface".
Helena also supplied this great interpretion of, what essentially was a totally automatic/sporadic painting, which I then later titled based on my interpretion of the forms that developed. Helena read them as such also, here is what she wrote:
I like to add some basic information for the names in the title - Fomorii: In Irish legend, a race of (one-eyed) demonic beings who lived in Ireland and fought off successive waves of settlers. They were finally expelled by the Tuatha De Danann (people of the goddess Danu) in the second Battle of Muighe Tuireadh (Moytirra). Their most prominent leader was Balar of the Evil Eye, killed by Lugh. Tiamat: In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is a goddess who personifies the sea. Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos. Although there are no early precedents for it, some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon. In the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, she gives birth to the first generation of deities; she later makes war upon them and is killed by the storm-god Marduk. The heavens and the earth are formed from her divided body. As you can see, I am all over the landscape with my references, frome Irish to Mesopotamian myth.