Daughter of Vulcan

 

In December, we attended an opening at Seattle's Roq la Rue Gallery, and I fell for the work of John Brophy, a local artist who has a knack for painting an exquisite face. While "Little Black Angel" was the piece being exhibited, I was more drawn to a pair of limited edition prints they also had on display: "Witching Hour" and "Daughter of Vulcan" (above). The faces in both are so haunting and ethereal that we decided one of them would just have to find a place in our home. I was initially captivated by "Witching Hour," but found the symbolism almost too obvious and literal (and a little gory), so "Daughter of Vulcan" it would be.

With our print safely wrapped and tucked away in a tube, it would be a couple of weeks before we saw her again. At the beginning of the year a nearby shop was having a sale, so we brought her in for framing. As Dennis, the Frame Shop Guy, gently unrolled the print, he gasped in surprise. Curious, I looked down and was startled by how much more beautiful it was than I had remembered. The gallery had been somewhat dark, with little natural light. In the frame shop, however, the little girl's face seemed to glow right off the paper. A photo simply does not do justice to the richness of Brophy's work. In the end, I am thrilled with the print we chose ... but I wouldn't mind adding "Oracle" to our (very) slowly growing collection.