"Lupa (She-Wolf/Whore)" (2026) Oil on canvas. 48"x60"
 
This painting is inspired by the Roman She-Wolf, a lasting symbol of a city that has been re-appropriated and altered multiple times throughout it's history. The word "lupa" when capitalized means the She-Wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus in the myth of the founding of Rome. And if it is lower-case, is a slang for a prostitute of the lowest kind, or a "whore."
 
I'm often interested in how women are depicted in art history. The she-wolf is interesting because she is explicitly NOT a woman and instead a wolf that breast-fed instead of ate the babies Romulus and Remus. If there is any truth to this myth, it was most likely a sex worker that found and raised the babies. I was also interested in how the understanding of the she-wolf has changed throughout history. People used to know "it was a wolf" ironically, yet with the rise of Christianity, the she-wolf started to  represent the "evils" and "greed" of women and still the ferocity of the Roman, then Papal, then Italian state. 
 
In my version, I wanted to bring some of the woman back and also explore the "reality" of the myth. As a result, my Lupa is half-woman half-wolf. She is the hero of this painting, not Romulus and Remus; here they are reduced to the "Lupa Capitolina's" Renaissance era bronzes. She has the eight breasts, yet the babies can't reach, disconnecting the Lupa from the role of mother. As the background "recedes" it flattens into yellow and a red line for the seven hills of Rome. This painting is concerned with "real" and "false" and makes it clear this is a painting, NOT reality. 
 
On demand prints are available for this piece.