Perseus with the Head of Medusa

I love that contemporary painter who does abstract images but names them after the great moments in Greek and Roman mythology.  What the hell is that guy's name?  I want to say Sol Lewitt, but that's totally not it.  Anyway, they have titles like The Rape of the Sabines.  Or that one about the swan?   I mean, what's not to like?  Plus, there's a historical line that can be drawn back to big boys like Titian, etc.  So you feel a little bit like you're in the groove.  One in a line of many.  You feel like Vikings going into battle.  Or priests saying mass.

This is the coolest scene from The 13th Warrior.  Which might be the best movie ever, even with an almost toxic level of cheesiness from Antonio Banderas.  I love it when the Vikings start chanting about going to Valhalla and drinking mead with their father's father.   And his father.  Which is the whole idea behind painting the same shit that they were painting in the 15th century ...


Best part is near the end when Buliwyf (which is code for Beowulf) drags his ass off his deathbed, hauling his sword behind him, ready for his final battle.  This, friends, is right up there with Willis Reed's famous Game 7 appearance against the Lakers.  Same thing exactly.

Exactly?
Exactly.

Anyway, there's a statue in the Met called Perseus and the Head of Medusa.  This isn't it, but you get the idea ...

I mean, it's Perseus and all.  But this one's by Cellini, and it's probably somewhere in Italy.  The one in the Met is marble.

Me?  I have this bug in my head about sculpting classical mythology using the expanding foam that is normally used for plugging holes in insulation.  You squirt it from an aerosol can and it kind of foams up?  Squirt squirt squirt.  Layer upon layer.  I figure it will give me a kind of dimpled effect, which if then glazed, or painted, or something, will yield a pleasing result.  Kind of like the Kennedy bust in the Kennedy Center in Washington.

My plan is to have Medusa's mouth open, screaming.  Likewise my boy Perseus.  And probably just do the thing from the neck and shoulders up.

Just thinking aloud here.  But it's a powerful notion.