Here Be Dragons a New Painting by Christine Goldbeck

There is a  new movie coming about librarians and current efforts to promote ignorance and intolerance by banning books, an act I consider sacrilegious. 

A dragon-mermaid with flowing red hair reads a glowing book while other books drift like lanterns, illuminating the world (as books do). Her tail melts into an old map and a stitched-together landscape that includes mountains, a city street with a library, a pirate ship and the sea.

“Here Be Dragons” is a journey between worlds: night sky, lit horizons, and a sea that folds into story. I layered paper maps and printed text with paint to create texture and pockets of discovered detail. Viewed from across the room, a fiery red head flying out of a night sky with the ocean beneath her beckons you to come closer. 

When you arrive up close, there are worlds to read. All beneath a sea that takes you back into the story again and again.

The book she reads is titled “Portable Magic,” and this is my tribute to the fantastical and wondrous storyteller Stephen King. King, in his “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” says “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” Indeed, they are. 

Which part pulls you in first: the glowing books, the figure, the colorful spaces between worlds? Something else?  Tell me — I love hearing from other “readers” of my paintings. 

Finally, but really not … I could go on about this painting for a LONG time … “Here Be Dragons” is my tongue-in-cheek way to say “Look! It’s a woman reading a book. Danger! Danger!” I am a bibliophile with a passion for history, for sure.

So, “Here be dragons" (Latin: hic sunt dracones ) is a phrase used to indicate dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist. And way back in the day, women were allowed to read the Bible and only the BIble.

The painting is installed and available for purchase in the online gallery.

As always, thanks for stopping in to spend a little time with me. 

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Interior close up. In this part of the painting, I used glazes so that you can see the drawing. I love palimpsest.