Mark Sheeky Artworks

About this painting

Painted for an exhibition with the theme of Labyrinth.

In the centre is a charging Minotaur, unleashed and angry. On the left is a woman holding a thread, Ariadne then, the woman who showed the warrior Theseus the way through the labyrinth. The story cycles clockwise as the thread reaches a love heart and the silhouette of the warrior. The angry Minotaur is released but Ariadne is sad on the right, the thread torn and a crashing sea with lightning indicates disaster, breaking the heart that was built at the beginning. At the bottom a circle with horizontal lines indicates peace and control; smoothing the storm.

In the myth Theseus killed the Minotaur, Ariadne's deformed brother, but to Ariadne's sorrow eloped with her sister.

The Minotaur myth is re-imagined here, as a symbol of emotional control, the creature representing a beast within, emotions, accessed by love. The wrong move or the wrong word can send things crashing, destroyed.