Daphne and Apollo

Oil/panel 8 3/4" x 6 1/2" - Rugh, 1999
On exhibit at Highfield Hall this month.

Hillary and I had just started dating. It must have been in 1999. Months before I had illustrated a piece for a book on mythology about Daphne and Apollo, where Daphne isn't allowed to be with Apollo and so is turned into a tree (which turns out to be the next best thing.) I always liked how those two trunks of the same tree in Beebe Woods have such a masculine/feminine look to them. So, anyway, as we started dating I told Hillary that I had just done a painting for her but that I couldn't show her yet. Too much commitment, too soon. She likes surprises and she probably stayed with me just so she could see what it was. I think it was a couple months later that I showed it to her.