If you find yourself without task or chore, bored beyond belief, and inclined to read a pedantic, hubristic, and discursive review interpreting a truly stunning work of art, I invite you to explore my essay (accessible at link below) on The Insemination of Venus by Laura Schmidt. To say that I find Schmidt’s work exciting and inspiring would be an understatement.
Schmidt, whom I have known for almost four decades, has recently turned in earnest to artistic endeavors following the conclusion of her legal career. Her latest work, The Insemination of Venus, is a masterful synthesis of classical themes and contemporary materials, drawing inspiration from Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and which I interpret as a re-imagining of the ancient motif of the Tree of Life and as an active force of creative transformation (see also my poem below).
Abstract for Essay: The Insemination of Venus as a Modern Tree of Life
The essay explores the profound intersection of classical mythology, artistic innovation, and the enduring motif of the Tree of Life in Laura Schmidt’s multimedia work. Inspired in part by Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Schmidt’s piece transforms the classical image of Venus from a passive subject of divine creation into an active force of generative imagination. Through an interpretative lens, this essay examines how The Insemination of Venus re-imagines the ancient Tree of Life—not merely as a conduit of divine will, but as a dynamic site of transformation shaped by human creativity. Drawing on traditions from Mesopotamian sacred trees to Platonic cosmology and Norse mythology, my interpretive analysis situates Schmidt’s work within a continuum of cultural expressions that depict trees as cosmic axes, vessels of metamorphosis, and symbols of the evolving relationship between nature, divinity, and artistic agency. Engaging with both the technical execution and symbolic complexity of Schmidt’s composition, this essay illuminates how art can simultaneously honor and redefine ancient archetypes, presenting the Tree of Life as a living, evolving force in the realm of artistic creation.
And here is the poem I was inspired to write after contemplating Schmidt’s The Insemination of Venus:
Once we trembled beneath sacred boughs,
Watching gods inscribe their will on leaves,
While divine winds shook celestial branches
And fate dripped like dew from heaven’s eaves.
Now the tree grows from our own imagining,
Its copper leaves dance to earthly air,
Venus transforms not by divine decree
But through the power we ourselves dare.
Where once we sought the gods’ creation,
Now we are the force that makes stars bloom.
The moth bears witness with human eyes:
We are become the cosmic loom.
No longer supplicants beneath holy trees,
We are the garden, we are the grove.
Where once we quaked beneath the heavens,
We are become the force that moves the heavens.
Northcoast Antiquarian 