a. t. whim

Laid Bare

I’ve always had a thing for girls turning into trees. It reminds me of that story of Apollo and Daphne. It went something like this…

Apollo sees Cupid playing with his bow and arrows. He makes some plagiarizing comment which makes Cupid angry. In return Cupid shoots Apollo with a sharp golden arrow through the heart to make him fall in love. Then he shoots a blunt arrow tipped with lead into Daphne to make her hate the thought of love. Apollo sees Daphne and becomes obsessed with her. Every moment he becomes more and more enamored. As she runs from him, Apollo pursues her like an animal after it’s prey. As he gets closer to her, she panics and begs her father for help, “Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger!” At these words her body stiffens and her feet become roots. Apollo shocked tries to embrace her branches, kiss the wood that is her body.

*The branches shrank from his lips. “Since you cannot be my wife,”
said he, “you shall assuredly be my tree. I will wear you for my
crown. With you I will decorate my harp and my quiver; and when
the great Roman conquerors lead up the triumphal pomp to the
Capitol, you shall be woven into wreaths for their brows. And,
as eternal youth is mine, you also shall be always green, and
your leaf know no decay.” The nymph, now changed into a laurel
tree, bowed its head in grateful acknowledgment. * quoted from www.online-mythology.com

That cupid is so evil….

What an insane week it’s been. After a whole week of Harry Potter mania, frantically painting and crafting, leading up to the midnight sale at Powell’s; I got on a plane the very next day and here I am in California feeling as if everything was a blur. I would’ve written sooner, but I’ve had my nose in the new Potter book for the last 3 days. And I just finished it about 2 hours ago. I think I’ll read it again, but more s-l-o-w-l-y this time! I do have a few pics for you to look at from our fabulous midnight event…..

This is the 21 foot by 14 foot archway I painted for the main entrance of our store. And I must say I’m pretty proud of the way it turned out! I didn’t have enough space to spread the whole thing out while I was painting it, and had to do it in sections. So after the grand unraveling, I’m VERY happy it wasn’t lopsided!

My favorite part is the lamp and the quill behind “Blotts”…

Here are a couple Monster Book of Monsters…

and here’s me, dressed as Dobby, face painting with 2 lovely people that don’t even work at Powell’s…

It was so much fun! And I’m SOOOOOOOOOOO incredibly grateful to the 2 people helping me, I think I would’ve cried if I had to do it again by myself. Unfortunately my camera ran out of memory after these few pictures and there is so much more to show you. I’ll have to borrow some pictures from someone else and post them here later.

I’m feeling a bit antsy not having my art supplies around me. I was trying to think of what I could bring on the plane, but I think most of it’s been labeled unacceptable. So here I am, on vacation, without my paints. I’m tempted to go to an art supply store and just get a few things. We’ll see.

By the way… Harry Potter was FABULOUS! and I won’t say anymore.