Polymnia (also called Polyhymnia) is one of the nine Muses. Her name is derived from the Greek words “poly” (many) and “hymnos” (praise) and she presides over lyric poetry. She also was believed to have invented the lyre and I chose to name the painting after her partly because the sweeping curves of the figure remind me of the shape of a lyre.
As with all of the paintings in this series, I created the underlying figure with many, many THOUSANDS of white ink dots on heavy-duty black art paper and then applied splashes of scarlet over the white form. My intention is to mix the familiar (the underlying form) with the unfamiliar (the random shapes of the splashes of colour) to hopefully create a combination that invites interest and stimulates a dialogue with the piece.
In fact, some of my followers on social media interpreted the splashes of red on this image as being blood spatters, which to them lent a slightly macabre aspect to the piece. I won’t say what my intentions were in this case, but I will say that I believe viewers should be allowed to interpret an artwork completely from their own perspective, and the more dialogue a piece evokes in its audience the better! 😃
Prints of this artwork, in various sizes, are now available in my online shop. ♥️
