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Ilaria is portrayed merging with a yew tree. One will grow upon the ruins of another. The past and the future occur simultaneously. Yew trees are signifiers of immortality. They are some of the oldest organisms on the planet. It’s not possible to date them exactly due to their rotting on the inside and growing out from themselves, but it is thought that the oldest ones in Britain are at least 4,000 years old, and possibly much older. They were revered by the Celts, who associated them with immortality, regeneration, rebirth and transformation. They are one of the most toxic plants around- just breathing their dust in can be fatal- and yet they are life-saving- taxol, a powerful anti-cancer drug, has been made from a compound found in their bark.
Oil and acrylic on canvas.
