Dafne

The metamorphosis caught in pencil — the moment between woman and tree.

Dafne is a studio work by artist Neve, pencils on black cardboard on MDF, 50 × 70 cm, created in 2015 and exhibited at Drops of Light, Galo Art Gallery.

"Dafne" is a colored pencil drawing on black cardboard, 50 × 70 cm, from 2015. Exhibited at the group show "Drop of Light" at Galo Art Gallery the same year. The myth: Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus, is pursued by Apollo. She prays to her father to save her, and is transformed into a laurel tree at the moment of capture — her skin becoming bark, her arms branches, her hair leaves. Apollo, arriving too late, declares her his sacred tree and wears her leaves as a crown forever after. Neve draws the instant of transformation. A woman with red hair and pale eyes looks outward — not fleeing, not resigned, but present, awake. Behind her head, leaves already growing from her hair. On her left shoulder, Apollo's hand grips. Her own right hand holds a branch that is also, ambiguously, her own fingers beginning to change. The two hands — one holding, one becoming — are the whole of the myth: the pursuer who seizes, the body that escapes by ceasing to be a body. The face does not show fear. It shows the composure of someone who has already made a choice that cannot be undone.