This series of paintings is inspired by Kore's transformation into Persephone, a foundational story in Greek mythology.

Abducted by Hades while picking wildflowers, Kore suddenly finds herself thrust into the underworld below. Panicked, her mother Demetra searches the world over to find her missing daughter.

Demetra ("de-" meaning earth, "-metra" mother) is the goddess of agriculture, and presides over the cultivation of the land. In her grief, she abdicates her duties, and the world descends into an unending winter. 

Persephone finds herself in new territory. Dark, bleak, unchosen. To sustain herself, or perhaps out of curiosity, she consumes seven pomegranate seeds. 

Soon, humanity stops making offerings to the gods– every field is barren and live-giving crops are destroyed. In response, Zeus finally intervenes. He orders Hades to release Kore to her mother, so long as she has not eaten any food of the underworld. Howver like Eve of Genesis, she has partaken in forbidden fruit.

Zeus negotiates that Kore, now known as Persephone (meaning death-bringer), will spend one-third of her life with Hades in the Underworld and two-thirds above with her mother. Thus, Persephone’s undulations between worlds initiates the seasons.