With the turning of the Wheel of Ages
A comet passes, stirring the ashes,
Where once there stood a temple
For the pilgrims of the heart.

Ashes of our ancestral Titans
Whose bodies ached to hold a woman
And taste sweet sap in priestess groves
Where they learned of Love as Art.

Planets quiver in their celestial dome
To witness emerging from the ocean foam
The One to hold the vision
For the jaded and forlorn

Although they're mortal still, and worldly wary,
Man and Woman, tiring adversaries,
Faintly hear the mythical sigh
When Venus is reborn.

Hypnotizing is her luminescence
Ancient wisdom rings her pink pubescence.
Only a goddess can deliver
Erotic Love unto the Earth.

Divine desire, with its pure intentions,
Serves to banish vanity's illusions.
Neither jealous nor possessive,
Beauty begets its own rebirth.

What joy! The vestal maid stirs and arouses
The goddess in each woman is brought out
And god-men join the temple dance
When Venus is reborn.

Together they celebrate
The Golden Age's morn.

James: From our first (and private) photo shoot. We had just made love and Becca was still in the throes of orgasm when I stood up on the bed and . . . click! So this "signature piece" for Venus is as genuine as it gets. Maybe that's why people like it - it is one of the most requested pieces in our art shows.

This is the only painting I've done three times. The first one I called M.A.R.S. for "Marveling At Rebecca's Splendor". The second effort worked for three years; then as my painting technique honed itself, I did this, the third one. The hallmark scallop shell came along, too.

The paintings of Venus from the Renaissance period were masterfully executed and maybe even accurate portrayals of beauty for that time. It occurred to me, however, that the Renaissance Venus - coy, without bodily hair, and quite frankly, often homely-looking - cannot work today. Where is the sensuality and open eroticism befitting the Goddess of Sensual Love? Now we have a modern-day Venus - sensuous, loving, and sexy (as she should be!) - reborn into a contemporary mythology necessary for the rebirth of women everywhere. And to be appreciated once again by men hungry for true beauty.

Becca: During the Renaissance, in 15th century Florence, Botticelli helped usher in the classical revival with his famous painting "Birth of Venus". This naked lady on the half shell, the embodiment of physical delight, had been kept tightly under wraps during the religious severity of the Middle Ages. Renaissance aristocrats welcomed the fresh ideals of joy and beauty that Venus heralded. Even so, Botticelli hardly conveys the passion and sexuality of the Love Goddess. (Perhaps he feared censorship by the Church or the burning of his work, i.e. the famous "bonfire of the vanities" in Florence.)

It is time to bring Venus forward from Botticelli's demure representation of her. We are entering an age when we can heal our hurting sexual identity by retrieving goddess wisdom from the ashes of a former time. In this we can allow ourselves to feel and express joy.

The "Wheel of Ages" recalls not just the Wiccan wheel of the year, but a grander time keeper, like the Egyptian epochs of the world or Hindu yugas. Like the Star of Bethlehem that initiated the Christian Era, the comet in the poem heralds the arrival of our New Age. It "stirs the ashes" of our mythological memories and instincts about a time when people celebrated sacred sexual rites ("Love as Art"). The Titans were our mythological grandparents; Gaia, the Earth Goddess, was one of them. "Sweet sap" refers to the potions from the ancient groves as well as the sexual juices of the priestesses themselves. When a holistic idea of Love is reborn (symbolized by the Venus imagery of "emerging from the ocean foam"), it is as if all the universe quivers with excitement that humans are finally going to abandon their coldhearted domination of each other and their planet. Even men and women, "tiring adversaries", sense the change that is imminent. As smart ("worldly wary") as they are - these moderns of the Information Age - they are trapped by their own mortality. The word "wary" sounds like "weary", and I do feel many are also "worldly weary".

The new Venus, dazzling in her beauty, demonstrates Higher Love ("Divine desire"), which worries not about one's mere physical appearance ("vanity's illusions") - as the old Venus did - and is neither "jealous nor possessive". When practiced, Higher Love engenders Beauty, which inspires more Beauty, and so on. The new Woman that "stirs and arouses" refers to the image of the awakening Venus yawning and stretching (her image in the painting), as well as the "arousing" effect Higher Love has on all women. Women find their divine/goddess natures within, just as men discover their divine/god natures. This moment is truly the dawning of a new "Golden Age".

"Rebirth of Venus" is written with a rhythm that lends itself to a chant or song to accompany a "temple dance". The meter is primarily iambic, with frequent three-syllable anapestic twists, as if to accompany the two steps and twirls of a dance. The quatrains exhibit slant rhyme in the first two lines: aabc. The fourth lines of every two quatrains rhyme. The poem concludes with an envoi, to emphasize the jubilant dawning of a new era.

James and I feel strongly about the message of this painting and poem. We realize that some would like to toss the whole concept into a modern-day bonfire of censorship, media manipulation, or character slander. It is our hope, however, that people receive "Rebirth of Venus" as a sign that it is time we all embrace a Golden Age in human relations.