Wow, I have so much of my life to share with you from the past few months!  I’ve been real busy and doing some fun and exciting things.  As you probably already know, I enjoy doing photoshoots and have done several recently.  One of them that I took part in was themed: Gods & Goddesses.  I chose to portray Persephone from Greek mythology.  For those of you who need to brush up on your mythology from your school days, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus & Demeter and is known as the queen of the underworld and also the goddess of spring.  The myth tells us that Persephone was gathering flowers one day when she caught the eye of Hades, god of the underworld.  Well, Hades knew he wanted to marry her the moment he saw her so he abducted her and took her to the underworld to be his wife.  (Though in some versions of the myth, she goes willingly.)  When Persephone’s mother Demeter discovers this, she is distraught and wanders the earth broken-hearted.  Since Demeter is the goddess of agriculture and fertility, her broken heart resulted in the earth becoming barren.  A deal was worked out between Hades and Zeus (Persephone’s father) where Persephone would spend a few months on earth with her mother and the rest of the year with her husband Hades.   As a result, anytime Persephone is reunited with her mother, spring erupts across the earth.  And you guessed it…when she is with her husband, you get winter.  I decided to go with Persephone because I loved the contrast of her personas.  In one sense she is the goddess of spring which I picture as ethereal, beautiful, and full of life.  On the other hand she is the queen of the underworld, so there is this dark and mysterious side to her.  I was looking forward to contrasting the two extremes.  Of course I needed a Hades, so I asked my friend Chris Hunt to join me.  Enjoy!

“He saw darkness in her beauty.  She saw beauty in his darkness.”

First photo is by Don Schiffer.  All others are Kim Marshall.