Thalia (Half Bust), 2022

The Embassy of Greece to the United States, Washington D.C.

Artist’s Narrative:  This is the first of a series of oversize heads which I sculpted. The heads grew in size and number and eventually there were six over-lifesize heads. These six constituted the Hellenic Heads series and were shown at the Embassy of Greece to the USA in May-June 2022.

These Heads were a personal exploration into my roots as a Greek American: for each one, I researched historical periods, chose sculptural precedents from Art History that inspired me, and had family members pose for me (live or photographs).

As to this piece specifically: it references the Classical Greek historical period, from 510 BC to 323 BC. The sculptural precedent I looked to was “Thalia, The Muse of Comedy and Pastoral Poetry” which is held by the Vatican Museums, loaned to The Metropolitan Museum some years ago. It is estimated to have been created in the Roman period of second-century AD and to draw from earlier Greek models of the late fourth to early third century BC. As I created my version of the historical piece, I found that it took on characteristics of my mother, specifically from old black and white photographs taken when she was around 20 years old, in Greece.