Prometheus and Pentecost are both behind “A Gift of Fire.” But Heraclitus and Mary Shelley are on my mind in this work as well. It is not so clear here where the light gets in: there may be an explosion of it in the white that spreads from the upper right diagonally across the painting (where I see another reference to Leonard Cohen), but there is also what could be the yellow glow of a lantern held by a shadowy figure in the lower right. This is not a representational painting, but I hope the imagery and the title together take some minds back to Prometheus as creator of humankind and others to Prometheus bound to a rock as punishment for the gift.
included in the 2018 Liturgical and Sacred Art Exhibit, Springfield Art Association, Springfield, Illinois.
Other Work From Steven Schroeder
