Valley of the Goddess

by Steve Henderson

Buy the Original Painting

Price

$4,800

Dimensions

48.000 x 36.000 x 1.500 inches

Title

Valley of the Goddess

Artist

Steve Henderson

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

If we get too busy, too involved in the “modern” world of technology, naturalism, and belief in science as the answer to all things, we are very much in danger of losing out on the real one.

Reality, we are taught and told, consists of no more than what we can see and feel, observe and classify, nomenclate and – most importantly in American corporate culture – turn into something that makes a profit. We mistake smart one-liners for intelligence, the ability to recite facts for wisdom, philanthropic foundations for compassion.

In other words, we look at the poor substitutes for reality and are satisfied with them.

The artwork, Valley of the Goddess, takes us to a place of surreality and supra-reality, a place where we are not limited to sheer materialism, but are invited to explore the things that we sense and feel, experience deep within ourselves. These sensations are sometimes soft and fleeting; other times they are so strong that they hit us in the solar plexus, almost doubling us over with emotion.

But because we can’t touch them, smell them, hear them, sell them – we discount not only their importance, but their very existence.

A young woman stands atop a rock overlooking The Valley of the Gods, a majestic, remote landscape in Utah, USA. The morning light glows through the sheer fabric she holds, adding to the sensation that she, somehow, is not completely solid, completely material, but beyond those limitations. If we turn and blink, say, she may disappear. Indeed, we get the idea that she has risen from the rocks with the rising of the sun, and as the dawn transforms into day, she will disappear.

But her spirit lives here – her spirit of quiet strength, graceful confidence, her sense of standing sentinel over the valley and watching as night’s shadows flee and daylight reigns. In this way she is very much a goddess, a woman who is not confined to society’s small, confined expectations, but who stands tall, strong and free.

She reminds us of what we as human beings were created to be: strong, free, creative, with the ability to feel and wonder, with the desire to bring light, and be light, in our world.

Featured on 41 Fine Art America groups.

First Place Winner in the Masters Feature Me, Baby contest sponsored by the Fine Art American Masters Group -- September 2020

Uploaded

September 17th, 2020

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