Mixed Media on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the back.

Leah Mariani is a painter who transforms traditional fictional and mythological characters into feminist icons using decorative arts patterning. This is the story of Danae. In Greek mythology, Danaë was an Argive princess who was locked in a tower to prevent her from conceiving a son. The tower had no doors or windows and only a skylight for light and air. Zeus, the king of the gods, saw her and desired her, and so he came down to her in the form of golden rain which streamed in through the sunroof and into her womb.

The story of Danaë has strong connections with the later story of Rapunzel. Both young women were imprisoned in a tower. I’ve tried to capture something of them both in this painting. The tower in which Rapunzel was trapped, however, had a window. Through the window, she let down her long stream of golden hair to allow her lover up into her tower and she too inevitably became pregnant. In both cases, the women were disowned by their jailers and cast out in the hope they would perish. In both cases, they were saved by their lover and they both lived to see the birth of their child and to live a long life.

The textured layers have been created using discarded domestic textiles, such as dollies and tablecloths, through the screen-printing process. These materials provide a link to the past and the supportive role women have traditionally played in society.