Artist’s Statement

The Hermes Myth fulfills the function of Olympian Herald.  He carries the messages of the Gods and Goddesses to human beings.  Not just a delivery boy, he transmits messages from the unconscious to the conscious more like an ambassador than a postman.  Hermes brings the windfall, the unexpected but fortunate happening at the right moment. He is associated with movement, action and the wind or element of air.  The symbolic path of Hermes is multiple.  With his intuitive intelligence, Hermes is the communicator, the charmer, the patron of travelers, the magician of games of chance.

Hermes is credited with the invention of the lyre made from a turtle shell. In Jump Time for Hermes, he is depicted giving a lyre to Apollo in trade for the caduceus, the insignia of the medical profession. Also spread across the panel is a net from Hermes’ ally Hephaestus, who is a skilled and creative craftsman. The net becomes the repository into which we place our questions, situations, and problems of our planet that we wish to have the God’s consider. When the Olympians have deliberated the rights and wrongs, they offer Hermes their counsel, and he jumps to tell us through our hearts, minds and instincts how we can best respond.