I've entered this year's RA summer exhibition, so all I have to do now is the work. Entries are limited but anyone can enter, it costs £35 per entry, maximum of two. Several ideas playing through my mind. The theme is 'reclaiming magic'. I have a bit of a 'thing' about Green Men. The Green Man is a very ancient magical mythical figure, he features in the classic of English Literature, 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.' I have a lovely little clay one in my kitchen which I bought from Southwold some time ago.
SPOILER ALERT.
This is basically a tale of one of King Arthur's Knights who is challenged by this magical character, The Green Man who says , if I remember rightly, that Gawain can strike him with his axe, then a year later he can strike him back.Something like that. So Gawain chops off his head and the Green Man picks it up and walks off with it, saying in effect, 'see you next year.' Cool Dude.
Following the death of a loved one, I had a dream about a hand coming out of the earth with leaves growing out of its fingers.I didnt know what it meant but its an image has stayed with me.Then, the other day, I saw this:
It is the hand of Daphne, being turned into a laurel tree, in order to escape Apollo. This is from an amazing statue of the pair by Bernini.
Many more artistic versions of the tale exist including this one:
We just pruned the laurel tree in our garden. So I thought I'd try and fashion something out of twigs and leaves etc, incorporating a textile element. I thought at first about a tree costume, but the one I drew on the back of an envelope bore an uncanny resemblance to a fancy dress costume you can buy for about £19.99.
I thought about doing a self portrait of myself as Daphne, but it didn't feel right.
I recently aquired a photo of my late mother, when she was about my age.
So I decided to base my Daphne on her face. I tried to draw her when she was alive, and she poked her tongue out at me. I didn't understand at the time, but I think I do, now. So I might do her portrait with her sticking out her tongue.Making an image of somebody you love who has died is a kind of magic, isn't it? I hope so. I'll upload pictures as I progress, like I did with Pieter Boel's Dog, it gives me an incentive to make the work!
Freesias were my mother's favourite flower, so here I've made some out of wool and cotton, wrapped around copper wire from a spool that was in my Dad's shed.I will incorporate them into this work, somehow.
1/5/21
Thought I'd better get cracking
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20/5/21
Thats it done, now. Submitted. Results in July.Here's a close up:
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