Deborah Darling Gray – Artist

Mythology Series

Mythology & Me

By the shores of… No, that’s not it. Slowly I turn…Step by Step…we’re getting closer! Not too far from Niagara Falls to Buffalo which brings us to Cheektowaga, (Land of the Flowering Crabapple Trees ), NY. It was here, in the 4th grade classroom of the mustached Miss Maurisi, that I first encountered the magical world of greek mythology. Wouldn’t you spend snowy afternoons reading the Iliad aloud to a captive audience?

After reading and rereading the Iliad I moved on – to the Odyssey, the Aeneid, The Romans, The Norsemen, (let’s hear it for the Neibelungenlied!), The American Indians… but the Greeks remain my original main squeeze.

When I looked back after creating paintings the size of my studio wall I realized I had a “series.” I found that myths and the archetypes that support them are amazingly flexible tools that can illuminate the difficult times and personal issues we commonly find ourselves embroiled it.

Enjoy!

I started painting in the early 90’s in the San Francisco studio of Michele Cassou’s painting experience hoping to discover creativity. Prior to that I had worked in sales and in production management in the book publishing industry both here and in New York.

The primary source for the “stories” of each myth is Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology, Timeless Tales of Gods & Heroes.”