Canto III (2021 Relief etching and acrylic on canvas 244 x 183cm, One piece)
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by Thomas Powers

Are your Dante pieces printed on canvas because paper isn't big enough or strong enough? I love the weight and heft of it. Is this coming from your former painting?

Yes. Paper would have been too fagile and require framing etc. The large canvas does form a connection to painting. The surface has about 20 thin layers of sanded gesso. I also like to color of gesso. Also it is easy to roll up for storage and transport. I also want the material to be part of the experience.

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Summary: Canto III
Virgil leads Dante up to the Gate of Hell, upon which they read a foreboding inscription that includes the admonition "Abandon all hope, you who enter here." As soon as they enter, Dante hears innumerable cries of torment and suffering. Virgil explains that these cries emanate from the souls of those who did not commit to either good or evil but who lived their lives without making conscious moral choices; therefore, both Heaven and Hell have denied them entry. These souls now reside in the Ante-Inferno, within Hell yet not truly part of it, where they must chase constantly after a blank banner. Flies and wasps continually bite them, and writhing worms consume the blood and tears that flow from them. The souls of the uncommitted are joined in this torment by the neutral angels—those who sided with neither God nor Satan in the war in Heaven.

Virgil leads Dante to a great river called Acheron, which marks the border of Hell. A crowd of newly dead souls waits to be taken across. A boat approaches with an old man, Charon, at its helm. Charon recognizes Dante as a living soul and tells him to keep away from the dead, but after Virgil informs him that their journey has been ordained from on high, Charon troubles them no longer. He returns to his work of ferrying the miserable souls, wailing and cursing, across the river into Hell. As he transports Virgil and Dante across, Virgil tells the frightened Dante that Charon's initial reluctance to ferry him bodes well: only damned souls cross the river. Suddenly, an earthquake shakes the plain; wind and fire rise up from the ground, and Dante, terrified, faints.  www.sparknotes.com
 

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Thomas Power Thomas was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1953 and raised worldwide. He received a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (1976), and an MFA in study arts from Queen's College Graduate School of the Arts, Queens, New York (1979).

His work has been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art (1976), Queens College (1978), Gray Art Gallery, NYC (1983), Dead Blimpie Show, NYC (1985), Yonkers, New York (1989), University of Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey (1990), Lenox Art Gallery, Lenox, MA (1997), Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA (1999, Amy H. Carberry Gallery, Springfield, MA (2002-2003, 2015) Celaya Institute of Art and Culture, Celaya Mexico (2022) Casa de Europa (2023) MacDowell fellow (23).

In the late 1970s, Powers was a musician, appearing in CBGB's,Max's Kansas City and the Uncle Floyd Show. In the 1980s, Powers company Artibus installed shows for: James Turrell (Whitney Museum of Art, PS1), Donald Judd (Leo Castelli Gallery), Dan Flavin (Museum of Modern Art), Tom Wesselmann, Steve Reich, Sol Lewitt, NEW YORK. In the 1990s, Powers illustrated and designed interactive games and animations. In 1993 Harper Collins, New York published the book, The Table and the Chair. IVI published the interactive game Louis Cat Orze (1995). Powers was the art director for Hard Press Publishers from 1996 to 1998. He taught digital media arts as a tenured professor at Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, MA, where he established the Department of Animation Design and Interactive Media (1998 to 2015).

Thomas Powers lives in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, where he designed and built his house and studio.

www.tompowers.art

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