"Ode to Hephaestus" by Troy's Work Table.
Sidewalk chalk wash, sidewalk chalk, chalk pastels, and charcoal pencil on 12" x 12" concrete board.
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"about circuitously walking / toward an injured crow / with a tire iron called Mercy." —from "Ode to Hephaestus, the Blacksmith Who Makes Lightning Bolts and Is Married to Aphrodite but Is Ugly" by Dan Chelotti, as found in x
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We are shaped by perception and perspective.
Even the title of the poem alludes to this. Hephaestus is ugly, yet he has the goddess of beauty and love for his wife. (Although the marriage is problematic.) Hephaestus is ugly, yet he is capable of fashioning lightning bolts to be used as weapons by the other gods. (And, once again his relationship to those other gods is problematic.)
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What may look like cruelty to one may be another's mercy. Like the story of Hephaestus, we don't have enough of the story here to properly judge. (Things are potentially problematic.) With what we do have, the story rings true. (Although it may indeed be problematic.)
What do perception and perspective look like when shaped by only a minimum of information? What do they look like in the midst of ambiguity?
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