CRONOS SCOURS FOR ZEUS

2012

Attempting to escape the prophecy that he would be dethroned by his son, the paranoid CRONOS swallowed each child as it was born.

His wife RHEA tricked him by giving him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in place of the youngest child, ZEUS. Upon realizing this, CRONOS began scouring the landscape for ZEUS.

This is one vignette among many, interwoven to form REBIRTH of GAEA -- a visual tapestry synthesizing modern conceptions of our place in the universe with those of the Ancient Greeks.

NFTs available here.

REBIRTH of GAEA

I couldn’t bring myself to ask anyone to pose as Cronos (“Well, you look like the embodiment of evil!”), so I used a photo of myself. *shot for this purpose. I don't normally make that expression.

For a long time, this representation of Cronos was the only photo my daughter’s boyfriend had seen of me. “This photo of my Dad was taken after I got home 5 minutes late once.”

PROCESS

I started off by painting a swirling, organic pattern in Photoshop. It was great to see this one evolve. I liked the painted pattern overlay but was hoping it would have more realism and thought it could be pushed further.

I recreated my head out of lizard skin, really trying to map the texture in a way that would convey the underlying muscle structure and function. For example, the delineated jaw structure moves from the edge of the mouth and flows into the ear. Smaller scales near the edges of the mouth and eyes allow for more elasticity, etc.

I mixed in teeth and a tongue from photos of a wolf and a dog. The background texture is from the surface of Mars.

Did you know?

Etymologically, Cronos is not related to Chronos (time). But as Professor Elizabeth Vandiver points out, the allegorical interpretation is not necessarily invalidated because when Cronos was freed from Gaea’s womb, Time actually came into being.

PROGRESSION

This video shows parts of the process of creating CRONOS (starting 2 min in) as well as the Nebulaic Embryo, Longing for Ouranos, and the Rebirth of Gaea logo.