Thoughts and paintings by Jinnie May

This is the story of Io from Greek mythology.  The myth says our lustful Zeus once again snuck down to earth to marry a beautiful mortal girl. He had to sneak because his wife Hera was extremely jealous. One day Hera realized that Zeus had gone to earth and she followed him. Zeus saw her coming and changed the lovely Io into a snow white cow. Hera knew what he was up to so she asked him to gift her the lovely cow, which he did. Hera was not to be deceived and tied the cow to a tree and sent for her most faithful servant Argus to watch over her. Argus had a hundred  bright eyes all over his body and never shut them all at once even while sleeping. Zeus asked his son Hermes to help poor Io. Hermes played the flute and put Argus to sleep , literally he was bored to death. Hermes untied the cow but Hera still wanted to torment her and sent a gadfly to sting and bite Io. Io ran away to Egypt where the Egyptians worshipped her. Hera was furious that her faithful servant was dead so she immortalized him by placing his eyes on the tail of her favorite bird the peacock. Zeus eventually turns Io back into a human shape and she lived a long life as a goddess-queen of Egypt.

This is the painting from Maythology. Our totally modern Io mans a fly swatter (dead fly lower right ). She has made a throw of peacock feathers and as far as the cow goes she is about to eat that hamburger. In the upper right corner she has changed  Argus(the faithful servant) into Angus-prime beef.  The lower right edge is a ripped loose-leaf page to show it is all a story.

My friends are starting to wonder about me. Stay turned!

Totally Modern Io  40"h x 30"w-Mixed media on canvas