Artemis, Diana and the Skull of a Forgotten Doe

 

“I found a well preserved skull of a doe. Will bring it back with me to see what you can do with it.”

It was an email from a dear friend on a camping trip.

 

 A few days later he brought the skull:

“She was a young doe and the coyotes got her. The skull is intact except for missing teeth.”

 

Here was the skull missing teeth and of course the lower jaw.

 After cleaning and washing it, the bones showed a lot of shade and deep coloration spots.

So, I needed to work with these by highlighting them.

 The darker shades made me decide on a rather common painting of a buck at crepuscule. But to make it special, I slightly scaled his face with my painting knife. So, looked from a few feet away, it seems like one is looking at the back of his head. But looking closely, there are two “eyes” that look at you.

Here is the distant look at my painting with acrylic paint

And the close up showing the buck looking at you:

Next, I thought of the goddess of hunting in both Greek and Roman mythology. Artemis was celebrated for her hunting skills, as well as a protector of nature. Later, she became Diana for the Romans and while Artemis was chaste, she did fall in love with Orion, her hunting partner. Diana in turn fell in love with a handsome young shepherd Endymion. I do have a favorite painting of Diana, also the goddess of the sky, hovering over the sleeping Endymion. I like this version of Diana and the sleeping shepherd because Diana does not have a bow in her hand as in many other painting. I do not find it romantic to sneak on a sleeping shepherd with a bow in the hand !It is from 1822 by Jerome Martin Langlois and wanted to somehow incorporate that in my painting of this skull.

Here is the painting from 1822

 

And my secretive incorporation of Diana’s silhouette into what could be thought of as a black moon

It was now time to add a few aesthetic touches – I did not like the skull to be bald. So, a desert jackrabbit tail gave character. Then a couple of Arizona turquoise stones completed the skull work.

To mount the skull, I opted for a country cut of basswood which is soft enough for carving and inlaying handmade beads. And to emphasize the theme of hunting with a bow and arrow as did Artemis and Diana, I placed two flint arrowheads on the side of the skull.

The final touch framed the work with crow and hawk feathers I find dropped on the ground. When these birds do not want some of their feathers, I recycle them for context and beauty.

 

This is my first skull work for 2021. Here are links to some of previous skull work I have done using horse, elk, coyote, peccary, bear and deer all left forgotten in the desert sand following coyotes’ predatory acts.

 

https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2020/12/peccary-skull-proud-to-be-bald.html

 

https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2019/12/last-skull-of-2019.html

 

https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2019/10/dimorphism-revisited-how-bear-skull.html

 

https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-unicorn-with-more-than-one-cornus.html

 

https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2019/05/edvard-munchs-scream-in-deer-skull.html

 

https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2018/11/vanitas-veritas-and-use-of-skulls-to.html

 

 

 

April 23, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021