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number of times. "It's the choice between the difficult path and the easy path," he says. "He was a young man [when the choice was presented to him] and by choosing the path of suffering he became a hero, rather than an ordinary person who might have lived a happy but unheroic life…Hercules is protecting the balance between pleasure and virtue. I've always been kind of bothered that he had to make this choice, because the essence of classicism is bal- ance between opposing forces, so how can he choose one or the other?" Landscapes inspired by Steinbeck's "pas- tures of heaven," located on the Monterey- Salinas Highway corridor, refer to an ideal landscape where there is also always the pres- ence of mor tality. "There is a melancholy of knowing we are all mor tal, and the beauty of it too creates something much deeper and richer than just a pretty landscape," Ligare says. "It has that layer of meaning and it becomes much more. It all began with Theocrates and Virgil and has been reiterated through the centuries, including with Steinbeck." Ligare's work is exhibited locally at the Chris Winfield Galler y, Dolores btwn. Ocean and 7th, Carmel. Please call 831/624-3369 or go to www.winfieldgaller y.com. For more information, go to www.davidligare.com. "Ponte Vecchio, (Torre Nova)," 1996, oil on canvas, private collection. C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 211