Daphne


Medium: Carved Maple wood, Mahogany base
Dimensions: 19” (h) x 20” x 8” (d)
Price: $1000
Description: I was carving a female torso from a Maplewood branch to enter into an upcoming exhibition. While delineating the figure’s left breast, my chisel caught the edge of the wood grain; it totally excised that part of her form. “What to do?” Having long preached the “value of the Happy Accident” (when an “accident” forces us to change our initial plan that then results in a more creative and interesting solution), I thought of the Ancient Greek myth of Daphne, daughter of a River God. Daphne was being chased in the woods by Apollo and, not wanting to be caught, she screamed for help. Daddy instantly changed her into a Laurel tree. The ironic transformation process here was that I was carving part of a tree to become a running female form that suddenly becomes rooted into the ground as a living tree. Fascinating and a first prize winner.