Maddox's Leda and the Swan is perhaps the poetic zenith of his career to date. It is a fresh and exquisitely lyrical rendition of the ancient myth of deception and seduction. Neither passive nor ecstatic, Leda is demure and faintly reproachful as she draws her blanket around herself is a classic gesture of modesty. This is the drama of Everywoman's love for whatever internal and/or external animal she bonds with. She and the swan have drifted through a vast labyrinthine marsh. Their history is behind her. Foregrounded is the swan himself, jewel-like and precious. The crystalline beauty of Leda's head centers the painting's space and insists on the spirituality of this coupling and on the importance of woman's psyche to relationships and transformations. An egg, their offspring, lays at her feet. The evening sky bathes them in a warm haze, reminiscent of the light that permeates Rembrandt's Danae. This painting is a tour-de-force paean to nature. It also celebrates the reticent wisdom of women who hold the most disparate forces together in that dissonant harmony we call family.
Leda and the Swan, 1991
The Islanders, 1989
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