FALLEN ANGELS
Fallen Angel, indeed of all of the paintings in the Fallen Angels Series, is elaborated by two accompanying passages from Paradise Lost, which each address the problem of despair:
Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is Hell;
Myself am Hell.
Satan Speaks inParadise LostIV, 74)
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
Better end here unborn...
But is there no other way, besides
These painful passages.
Adam speaks in Paradise Lost, XI, 501, 527)
Furthermore, the painting is my personal tribute to Van Gogh, elicited as a deep response after having seen his work, placed within the milieu of his own contemporaries, at the Dallas Museum of Art in the exhibition, Sheaves of Wheat. Thus, imagination, memory, art history, and personal history all combine to enrich the context from which the work can be approached.