The Story Behind Phaethon, Son of the Sun God

Studio selfie with Phaethon, Son of the Sun God, May 2020

The beauty of the Greek countryside can seem like a clever facade: picturesque little towns with perfectly posed cats, deep blue skies & sculpted, white clouds. The day that I happened upon Phaethon, this lovely white horse on Crete, I’d set out to explore some quiet backroads in the hills behind Rethymno. I say quiet - there were few people - but the loud song of cicadas was quite something. I drove along narrow dirt roads and then came to a place where the moon and the stars seemed to align, or, in this case on that hot, early summer day, the sunlight, olive trees and majestic horse all came together…it was like they were just waiting for me to turn the corner and show up.

And later I wondered, how many decisive moments - as Henri Cartier-Bresson called them - have I missed, even by a few seconds? I’ll never know. That being said, the scarcity of these experiences is what makes them so special.

I wish I could thank Phaethon for his willingness to pose, and I wish that he could understand that his portrait Phaethon, Son of the Sun God was selected to participate in Expressions 2020: The Marin Society of Artists’ virtual show that is on view here through June 27, 2020. Expressions 2020 was juried by Andrea Schwartz of Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco.