Theres a story about a water nymph falling in love with Helios, and through some Greek 4D chess magic, turns into a flower that watches the sun from the ground. in the older version by Ovid it was a heliotrope flower but after some point in history, the flower in the tale became a sunflower.
Aconite
Athena used the poison of an aconite to turn Arachne into a spider... I wish I had some of that stuff today, there's a few candidates who I think would be better off as spiders :D
Volume 4 is LIVE! Visions And Voice Of The Garden is a beautiful collection of flowers, plants and tree artwork with poetry and haiku. HIGH END heavy #80 paper. Each page is suitable for framing!
Perfect gift idea! Mother's Day is coming!!! Or gift yourself. :)
"Bouquet of Flowers," Maria van Oosterwijck, second half of the 17th century.
Van Oosterwijck (1630-1693) was a Dutch painter of still lifes, mostly florals. She was quite a success, and a canny businesswoman, marketing her works to various crowned heads of Europe. She was a professional painter at a time when few women were, but she was still denied membership in the Painter's Guild because of her sex.
By all accounts, she was a deeply religious woman, and many of her paintings include symbols, either through color or other means, of her religious views. Butterflies were to mean the Resurrection, for instance.
She never married, but dedicated herself to her painting. She raised her nephew, and taught one of her servants to paint and be an artist herself, so she could be self-supporting. I like that aspect of her; not only being independent and self-determined, but helping others to be so as well, even if she was denied some opportunities because of the prejudices of the time.