Virgin Underground

This work seeks to sooth the historical tension between the Grace of the Virgin Mary and that of the Three Graces of pagan tradition who, as bees, nymphs or beautiful women accompany Hermes-Mercury on his soul-making errands. They all harken back to the ubiquitous Triple Goddess of antiquity and to her phallic son Eros, but also to Black Madonna tradition, Isis and Nut, Egyptian mother of the night sky. As vultures (sacred to Isis) strip a carcass above to banish easy sentimentality, Mary Magdalen tosses pearls into the void to guide a Mexican maiden (or any naive soul) into a darkening void that gradually becomes Cosmos, where Ave Maria, the original Eve of flesh and her pagan sisters merge in the superordinate person of Sophia.