Ishtar

Ishtar – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here is my new painting titled, Ishtar.   While exploring the symbolism of the number 8, I learned that the 8-pointed star represents the ancient Babylonian goddess, Ishtar. I have a vague memory of hearing the word, Ishtar either in a song or poem years ago and loved how the name sounds when spoken which is why I was drawn to learn about her meaning now. Ishtar is associated with the planet Venus; and like Venus, she represents beauty and the fullness of womanhood.  

Her association to Venus is why the star has 8 points.  The planet Venus in her dance around the sun with earth takes 8 years.  Venus’s movement with the sun and earth is in a 1.6 ratio pattern which is the golden mean ratio and one reason why Venus may represent beauty.  

I thought that information was interesting and so I was inspired to paint an 8-pointed star.  I started with small center circle and then a large cross and next add the diagonal cross and then put in the triangles to complete the star. I added the other elements to take some focus away from the symmetrical focus of the star. It was fun to paint and turned out fairly bright, like a star.

The Star

The Star – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Years ago I painted the interior one of my large papier mache bowls with a scene of a woman pouring water out of her vessel, the water turned into waves that curve around the  the bowl. I loved the way the image worked so well with the bowl shape.   I still have the bowl which sits in our living room.   I felt like trying to do a painting with a similar idea.  The Star is the result.

A young woman is pouring water into a pond in the evening with the stars shining above. To me the painting symbolizes that each human being is unique like stars in the sky and that through our own uniqueness that we pour out into the world we help to create a better world. It’s good to see people coming together and focusing on how they can contribute in their own way during this turbulent time period.