Origine,
42 inches by 36 inches
Enameled painting on glass, photographs, black ink and oil paint on wood cradle board.
My collage “Origine” depicts an ancient story, deconstructed over time, as it assimilated into modern culture. The ancient fable of “Daphnis and Chloe” is retold in a timeline from top to base. Inspired by the dream like images created by Chagall, I incorporated cut and pasted photocopies from the historical record, as well as my own photographs in close-up studies of my original glass work. Three fired painted glass panels depicting Chagall’s figures are incorporated into the collage. A black painted line creates the appearance of a stained glass window framing each element.From research I found the original story of “Daphnis and Chloe” to be an ancient pastoral elegy attributed to the second century Greek poet Longus.
Although Chagall created his famous print in 1960 Greece, he was not the first artist to discover “Daphnis and Chloe”. To my surprise the story of “Daphnis and Chloe” had been visited, and reinvented many times over the centuries by famous writers, sculptors, musicians, filmmakers and chorographers. Chagall was not the first artist to have “Daphnis and Chloe” cast their spell. I discovered “Daphnis and Chloe” is thought to be the basis for William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet and Ravel’s famous symphony “Daphnis and Chloe” which lead to ballets and movies.
Today many famous love stories, artworks and movies draw from “Daphnis and Chloe” Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, Rick and Ilse from Casablanca, John and Yoko, Baby and Johnny from Dirty Dancing, Titanic’s Rose and Jack, Twilight’s Bella and Edward and so many more. At lower right Chagall sits pondering it all, and wondering what is next.
