A Chilean Siren
My original concept for this painting was to bring to light the translucent quality of the Siren, a mythological being from the deep sea of our collective unconscious. As a child in Chile, I learned that the myth of La Pincoya originated on an island off the coast of southern Chile named Chiloe’. On a family trip to the island in 1972, I listened to the islanders tell of this beautiful creature and her long blonde hair. They told of how she foretold the future fishing season according to the direction she faced while she danced. If she danced facing the sea, the fishermen would have a successful season. However, if she danced facing inland, the fishing would be poor.
I started the painting in 2015, but was unable to finish until 2017 when I learned that during the previous year the fishermen off Chiloe’ had a terrible harvest from the sea due to a toxic microalgae called Red Tide. The quantity of dead sea life from the toxic bloom was enormous and was devastating to the people of Chiloe’. Strangely, I had already painted La Pincoya facing inland and so I finished painting her hair red instead as a symbol of the Red Tide that had ravaged the sea creatures off the coast of Chiloe’.
In Chilean mythology, La Pincoya is not only beautiful but good and humanitarian. Perhaps in this painting she emerges from the waters to warn us about the environmental destruction that is happening to our oceans. La Pincoya is a harbinger not just of one bad fishing year but that she is turning inland to perform her ritual dance to tell us that the enviromental degradation of our oceans is not only the result of natural cycles but because of our own disregard for the health of our seas.
‘La Pincoya’ Painting Process
