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The Sleeping Minotaur

The figure in this canvas is my interpretation of  Jorge Luis Borges'  short story, ""The House of Asterion," itself inspired in the age-old myth of a minotaur (a creature half man, half bull) , who was hidden in a maze or labyrinth by his family because he was regarded by them as  "monstrous."  In Borges' s tale, the minotaur speaks in the first person, narrating the story of his life and reflecting on his fate. Indeed the minotaur is the hero of the myth. (CLICK here to read the text by the Argentinean author)

I see the minotaur as a symbol of man's complex nature spirit/body, animal/human, etc.) and of how often this same complexity is considered wrong or evil by society.  The creature's unabashed nakedness represents his vulnerability.

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