My painting "Daedalus and Icarus" is based on my general frustration/anger at having been left with mobility loss and chronic pain due to complications from endometriosis. I have disguised these feelings by wrapping them up within a colourful, textured image. Where the viewer meets the character of Daedalus in the immediate moments after Icarus's fall the story from Greek Mythology.
I wished to present Daedalus after the action; where he would appear bewildered, stuck in the moment, unsure about what to do next. I was hoping to capture a sense of shock and inaction to match my own personal response to what was happening to me.
Daedalus was inspired by a character in Carravaggio's painting "The Supper at Emmaus" (1601). I was aiming to create a character who displayed an intense sense of mood like Carravaggio's.
To personalise the image, I have added humour through three symbols. The first and second are young girl's hairclips - pink flowers and a green butterfly. The latter as an ironic symbol of flight. Icarus is represented by a splash of dots in an eye shape. This is a symbol taken from Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne" (1520-1523).
I was able to express my own anger by scratching textured shapes directly onto the surface, then adding thin washes of sap green to beautify the image and to disguise my feelings of anger. I also wanted to give the impression that we are looking down upon the landscape from an aerial view (as in the story), whilst simultaneously viewing Daedalus from side on.
I enjoyed playing around with viewpoints and symbolism within the painting to make the image appear colourful, beautiful and hopefully intriguing.