Ah, love. Some days it it falls in your path, some days you stumble across it, some days it hits you like a giant ax to the back.
Cupids Wrath was a special piece I started several years ago as a large pencil sketch. I postulated what other gods of myth could become the next Thor and be a superhero. I didn't want to go with the obvious warrior gods or demi-gods, I wanted to step out of normal and into silly. Thus enters Cupid. Today Cupid is viewed as a chubby little baby with wings, a diaper, and arrows that strike people with love. My Cupid steps out of the archaic and into the modern. He is a hunky guy who deals in romance. However, he is a little annoyed that some lightening god is getting all the girls, in fact he is down right furious. He traded in his harmless love arrows for a love ax. Not only can he still bring the romance, he can also bring the smack-down on villains.
For the painting of this I wanted to first remain true to the original idea of cupid, he is supposed to embody the idea of sexy man, so I went with a hunky figure. Shirtless works well with both the hunky and the giant wings on his back, which would prove difficult to get clothing around. I changed his scanty loincloth as depicted by ancient artist with military-ish pants to give him a more militaristic feel. The ax was a fun choice as it leans away from romantic to a stark gruesomeness, swords are often seen as romantic, you don't often see the hunky guys on romance novels holding axes, they hold swords. Finally, I wanted the background to tie together the image of wrath and war, so a storm rolling across the fields works, plus I connected the storm to the figure using the color of the wings, which brings the notion of Cupid creating this storm by his anger.
For the card, the use of this art for a strength card was obvious. If love is anything, it is strong.
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