Both secular and cosmic “Birthing Pains” contains a feminist creation myth that simultaneously refers to birth, consciousness and loss. Hess likes revisiting and updating themes from the past and “Birthing Pains” carries echoes of Botticelli’s Renaissance “Venus,” who is best described as a weightless Neo-Platonic ideal. Hess’ self-aware goddess can be seen as an emotionally charged icon of womanhood that embodies a less-idealized but more conscious deity born into anxious times. -John Seed, exhibition catalog Marietta College