Pele

The Wall of Girls
3.Pele

Image by Cambridge Book Illustrator – Amanda Hall

This image has delighted and fascinated me for many years since I first bought it printed up as a greetings card. I have come  to imagine the image is of the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes – Pele. Pele is also a goddess of love, and as the somewhat Freudian cigar and phallic cactus suggest the physical nature of that love. Perhaps I am wrong, there is nothing on the card to say who is the figure in the illustration, but I like to think it’s of hot old Pele, basking under a pure blue sky, her feet in a bowl of water to cool her down. I love this picture – I’d like to be this version of Pele, with her boldly painted face and cute kiss curled hair giving her a heady, alluring appeal that I can’t take my eyes from…read more…