Porius (401)

Porius (401) - (2013) oil on canvas, 24x24 in. For sale on Etsy.

My clay model of a Celtic deity sits in front of my drawing of a still from one of my first Vine videos, which shows me sitting up late at night struggling with Porius, a doorstop of a book by John Cowper Powys about a Welsh prince meeting Merlin and King Arthur and various other people and enduring several battles and other hardships. At least I think that's what it was about. It's all kind of a blur now. I had to stay up late to finish reading the thing, one chapter per day. Here is the Vine: https://vine.co/v/b2dtKI1zjTt I chose to read Porius because, like I say in my little video, I was trying to learn about the Celts. Really, I was trying to get more of a general feeling about the Celts instead of just picking up a non-fiction book to read. I had a couple of those, too. One book was the source of the photo that my clay model was based on. The painting changed dramatically as I worked on it. Eventually I started to feel like the Celtic deity could be a symbol for Porius himself in a way.

The soundtrack for this painting is the Afro Celt Sound System Radio station on Pandora. That's what I listened to both while reading the book and making the painting.