"The Landscape of Attis in an American City, circa 1999"
acrylic and collage elements on paper, 10 panels, 103" X 207"
each panel, 50" X 39", 1998

This work grew out of a single painting: the image in the upper left panel developed as I was reading a book by Eugene Monnick, a Jungian analyst, called Castration and Male Rage: the Phallic Wound. I wanted to paint the depotentiated Attis (whose myth was a leitmotif in the book) as a figure of joy, dancing, in spite of his mad, self-inflicted wound. The paradox of that image soon grew from personal psychological rumination to a larger view of the society we live in: our freedom as individuals underpinned by a growing sense of political impotence, and vague spiritual longing; consumerism and corporatism an invisible double-edged knife that threatens us.

The story of Attis from Monnick's summary: Queen Cybele, goddess of caverns, patroness of wild beasts, a nature goddess, Queen of the gods, fell in love with the semi-divine youth, Attis. She caused Attis to go mad when she learned of his love for Sangaride, a mortal. Attis, in his madness, castrates himself. After he regains his sanity and discovers what he has done, he decides to kill himself. Cybele intervenes by turning him into a fir tree. Because of his association with the evergreen Attis symbolizes renewal.

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