Original oil on canvas: 58.5" by 18" The premise for 'Pavane for a Dead Princess' centers around the ancient myth of the 'dying/resurrecting' god, such as Dionysus or Osiris, and more specifically, if not obviously, Jesus Christ. In my own fantasy world of Aquaria, I employ this dying/resurrecting mythology as a means of creating what I now refer to as 'mermaliens' through a process called endosymbiogenesis. In Pavane, the female is being revived, or resurrected, after having died a drowning death. This resurrection is accomplished by introducing the symbiont called the Fin Cephalarvum, or head-mask, which, when the dying human comes into contact with it on the seabed (the creature begins life more plant-like), resuscitates the human. The male in Pavane has discovered the princess and will help assimilate her into the mermalien society called the Domiceti: Domi, short for domino, Latin for 'mask,' and ceti, short for cetacean. The scene in which these two mermaliens are depicted is post-apocalyptic, evidenced by the eagle head vent found high up on the Chrysler Building in NYC (and now underwater). The chicken is named Binky, a recurring character in this series, who happens to be a professionally trained circus chicken, and has little to do with the humans other than creating a bit of comic relief. Image: copyright 2002 Patrick Pierson