#also i'm trying to talk more about my ocs in 2024 please be gentle i am a delicate flower

[adderstones]

Lady Olwen and the Unicorn

Some Deep thoughts I was having while painting this piece below:

Unicorns in medieval art sometimes represented the chastity and purity women were expected to maintain, but also the game of courty love. In order to slay a unicorn, a maiden was to sit out and wait for the creature to find her, then the hunter nearby would strike. Obviously this is just an allegory for sex and the loss of virginity from a deeply patriarchal society. It also illustrated the expectation of women's roles in courtly love in the period.

It reminds me of the purity culture I grew up in, to be honest. I heard stories like this, cautionary tales that growing up and becoming a woman was like the violent killing of a sacred creature. The point of this piece became very therapeutic for me, and served more to heal something that had been hurt a long time ago.

I've also been in love with the Unicorn Tapestries since I was a teenager I wanted to draw a woman surrounded and protected by these motifs. Obviously she's not a virgin, but she is still deemed worthy of a visit from a unicorn.

#ocs #watercolor #illustration #artists on tumblr #lady olwen #unicorns #medieval #fairy tales #anyway sorry if this is like im 14 and so deep i was in my feelings #also i'm trying to talk more about my ocs in 2024 please be gentle i am a delicate flower