-By Donato

This painting was shown at the Jonathan Levine Gallery back in August for the infra:REAL show currated by Pat Wilshire, the co-founder of IlluxCon, with his wife Jeannie.  I thought it timely to share here considering the convention is currently running at the Allentown Museum of Art. The convention is closed to registered attendees Thursday and Friday, but the general public ( and other fans and professionals!) can come Saturday and Sunday to take in all the event has to offer!

More information here:  http://www.illuxcon.com/#

On the painting Promethean Costs:

Creative outbursts from individuals have their costs and risks, like meteors that flame up and enrich the sky and their viewers before they fade and die. Prometheus paid for his impulse to help humanity with an eagle coming daily to eat out his liver, after regrowing a new one overnight, forever tortured for this act of kindness to humanity.  He acted upon desire and what he felt was right, knowing he could likely suffer grave consequences for defying the other gods. Creative artists/writers/scientists do likewise. To be creative is to take great risks.  For the chance to be an inspirational star inspiring knowledge, dreams, and hope to others there is the reality that many times we will fall and descend into a darkening well of failure. Risk is accepted as a price for glory, but sometimes we do not realize how deep the cost of failure may be for success to be achieved by others.

Sometimes I wonder if I just created this painting so I could paint the bottom of someone’s feet !  My thanks to the wonderful Grant Newton for his stunning modelling skills and continued support of my work though his willingness to pose for nearly two score commissions over the past decade.