i’m back home to help my mom while my dad dies. they get to do this and i get to help because they love each other, and it’s insane that life just continues on.
little cat died in the night. i was calling her “baby” when i was sitting with her yesterday—we found her anxious and tense yesterday, and when we checked this morning, she was laying down, relaxed and a little warmer. died in her sleep. we buried her in the backyard.
and my dad is doing worse, like much worse. dying is hard work, but and little. the cat is curled under a blanket and so is my dad and they are both still alive tonight.
If a girl asks your zodiac sign and your first response is to be annoyed, you’ve already fucked up. You don’t have enough whimsy in your heart to entertain an arbitrary topic for even a little tiny bit and it’s ugly
The Metamorphosis of Daphne. Italian School, Trapani, Sicily. Date: 17th century AD. Medium: Red coral figure with gilt copper mounts on a later wood base. H. 22 cm. Collection: Private collection.
This sculpture represents a brilliant intersection of biology, mythology and supreme craftsmanship specific to the city of Trapani in Sicily. During the 17th century this port city became one of the principal centres of coral processing in the Mediterranean thanks to the vast banks of Corallium rubrum discovered nearby. Artisans here did not just carve the material they collaborated with it. You can see how the sculptor utilized the natural branching growth of the coral colony to represent the very moment Daphne transforms into a laurel tree to escape the god Apollo. Her fingers extend into the natural forks of the coral which are tipped with gilded copper leaves, blurring the line between the artwork and the raw material.
What makes this choice of medium intellectually fascinating is the ancient mythology surrounding coral itself. According to Ovid, who also wrote the story of Daphne, coral was born from the blood of Medusa. When Perseus severed the Gorgon head and laid it on a bed of seaweed, the blood turned the plants into stone. Therefore the artist is sculpting a story of metamorphosis (Daphne turning into a tree) out of a material that was physically defined by metamorphosis (seaweed turning to stone via blood).
see-1: https://t.co/Bk3R30Dygb