Nephele

Nephele was a cloud nymph featured in several ancient Greek myths. She was moulded out of clouds by Zeus in the shape of his wife, the goddess Hera. Zeus created Nephele after he saw King Ixion's attempted assault of Hera, and he sent Nephele instead. Ixion was fooled by the ruse and slept with the nymph, since he thought she was Hera. After that love affair, Nephele gave birth to the tribe of the Centaurs in a rain-shower upon the slopes of Mount Pelion. As Zeus' suspicions were confirmed, the impious king was subsequently apprehended and chained to a fiery wheel for all eternity. I wanted to portray Nephele as a naked woman sleeping on a purple pillow and lying on a bed of clouds to represent the seduction scene that made King Ixion unable to resist the bait. To create the image, I used one of my handmade original clay sculptures worked from live models. In 2017 this unique statue was exhibited in my third group show at a prestigious fine arts institution in Barcelona, Spain.