Daphne. Destroy this form that’s too pleasing. Change me! Painting

Daphne From Roman times (Pompeii) to Christine de Pisan in the middle ages, from Pollaiolo and Tiepolo or Turner, to modern artists like Meret Oppenheim or Anselm Kiefer today, countless painters have been inspired by the theme of metamorphoses in the story of "Daphne and Apollo" and have interpreted it in as many different ways. The bare bones of the Daphne story is arguably common knowledge, or at least you don't have to be a classicist, or Italian, to have heard about it: a girl (Daphne) changes into a tree (a laurel). Even though there are numerous relevant "contemporary" issues involved with a reading of the "Metamorphoses", gender identity issues being the most obvious, I do not set out to analyse the text with painting . And there's no need for a trigger warning:for me it's not so much about Daphne's flight and escape from the pursuant (rapist) Apollo, as is her desire for change (she cries out "Change ME" in fact). One thing though that is equally worrying today is the rape of the land and the imminent decimation of nature (trees and forests) BY HUMAN HAND AND MIND, and the total destruction of any possibility of a "Metamorphoses": "L'imagination est un arbre" wrote Gaston Bachelard - which I have taken as title (or sub-title) for all the paintings about trees and Daphne. Of course I don't look at ALL trees (in nature) with an anthropomorphic eye but the Daphne theme is a poetical excuse to - the delirious morphological interchangeability of tree limbs and human limbs as being both, changing before our eyes. This painting is part of an ongoing series. I primarily use giant Sennelier soft pastels and spike oil on canvas.

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:39.4 W x 47.2 H x 0.8 D in

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