Branches - Tumblr Posts
Between the buildings, elms curved so high that you ceased to remember their height until you looked above the familiar trunks and the lowest umbrellas of leaves and took in the lofty complex they held high above, branches and branches of branches, a world of branches with an infinity of leaves.
John Knowles, “A Separate Peace”
// dark nights 🖤
As you may have seen @katerinaaqu and I have been discussing about a head canon of hers, tatted Odysseus.
For a while we searched for Scythian tattoos as they are the closest society that allowed tattoos, we weren´t sure if in Mykenean Greece they were frowned upon but in classical Greece they were (criminals, shady or barbaric people wore them).
So to make it plausible we came up with this idea: in the middle of the Troyan war in a resupply day, Menelaus and Agamemnon find Odysseus been tattooed an olive tree by a Scythian, perplexed by this they told him that it was a nothing a king should do, shady look.
But Odysseus told them it was a memory of his home of Penelope and Telamachus, that at least if he died there it would have died with his family. Also is a display of Ody´s more flamboyant personality traits, he didn´t tattoed a small olive or branch, nonono, he tattoed a whole tree!.
As the real design is composed of branches inspired by Scythians tattoos of deer´s antlers, (the lack of trees in the steppes prevented them from forming a more floral and plant style; being deer's antlers where we find more plant 'like designs),
The olive flowers are simplifications of the actual flower,
Flowers for my beautiful wife, whom I longed for, for years
The leaves are blackouts of the originals and the olives are also simplifications.
The sweet fruit of my dear Telemachus whom I never saw growing
The images below are the sketches I made for having an idea of the placement and elements we wanted to include.
We chose the upper arm as it was more concealable and only be fully revealed to Penelope.
As you can see there´s a swallow drawing, it has it reasons, swallows (Hirundo rustica) have a year migration and came back to Europe and Greece in spring, being heralds of the season and all that entails (hope, regrowth, fertility...) but the most important attributes for us were; (Athena transforms into a swallow and flies away from Telemachus in the Odyssey). Also it is mentioned that the chord of Odysseus's bow "sang like a swallow" when he used it to kill the suitors symbolizing his homecoming.
Swallows have always been linked to journeys specially to homecoming. They idea was of one swallow (Odysseus) but swallows are paired and as a small reminder, the biggest and most ornate is Penelope, fully in flight and more artistically and Odysseus is the one below more naturalistic as he is lesser in his eyes than her. The swallows are more linear and not painted as it also seems more secretive and blank spaces for everyone except him (So he can say everything I have been writing to her)
These is the final rendition of the idea!
I hope you have enjoyed and that it becomes your new headcanon!
@katerinaaqu thank you so much for everything! It has been a pleasure!
Winter in Belgium, 2021.
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Walking through the forest I leaned my back against the trunk of one of the trees to look up and seeing the cups I thought, they seem to be chatting. The cups almost joined each other and the leaves danced to the sound of the wind. I stayed a while in that position admiring them and of course, the camera spoke twice.Location: Pyrenees, Andorra, Southern Europe. Fine Art Prints
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GREVILLEA JUNIPERINA
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Inspiration for a large rustic backyard deck remodel with a fire pit and a roof extension