Artist's Interpretation:

After the fall of Troy (cloud as a wooden horse, upper left) "Ulisse" spent ten years wandering from one land to another across the Mediterranean sea (sailing vessel). His voyage tormented by raging waves stirred up by the King of the sea, Poseidon, brought him to perilous shores and adventures before he could reach his Ithaca and his faithful Penelope. Like "Ulisse", the artist has to endure the torment of raging destructive criticism, the agony of indifference and the arrogance of ignorance; and like the rocks battered by the fury of a violent storm, he will survive to tell the story to the future sailors, who will embark on the ship of life, and he will realize his own dream by searching his artistic island in the fluctuating turbid waters of modern history.

Physiognomy of the painting: the symbolism is clear, I am the painting. My face is on both rocks, the boat on the beach bears my name, the sea carves on the sand the third letter of the alphabet "C", and there are three trees, three clouds and three birds. My next painting lies on the beach in the form of the stone embryo. The rocks on the right echo human forms while the rock to the left (with the reflection in the sea) outlines the face of a monkey which, according to Darwin, is the ancestor of man; a theory not shared by me as I have clearly shown by placing the waiting Penelope on top of the rock, Penelope as the woman of all men and as the mother of all children.

Joseph Cusimano

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Additional Information:

• Color reproduction appears in Passage to Canada, page 65, image #1.