The ivy is thoroughly laid in now, still pretty crude, but you can see the structure of it. After I shot these pictures I continued to paint the leaves upward on the side of Amelia’s body.
I really like the way Amelia’s embedded in the ivy, it makes the image feel strongly dreamlike and emphasizes the timelessness of her myth. I’m gradually getting a sense of the painting as a compound of three epic narratives:- the story of Daedalus and Icarus, the mystery of Amelia Earhart, and the tragedy of the twin towers. The ivy makes it feel as though the stories are trapped in the dream world, from which we can’t escape.Â
