PETAH COYNE: So, Daphne is a minor figure from Greek mythology, and she was considered, actually, a nymph, but she was such a beauty and Apollo fell in love with her. And so, he really chased her and was just about ready to catch her and she was freaked out. And so, she was running and just screaming to her father, who was the god of the river. 

And so, her father turned her into a laurel tree. Dante’s Daphne has a bit of pissiness, and it’s a little bit closer to Miss Havisham, who’s always been a favorite of mine. I’m always combining other famous women characters with other women characters, and they live in many of my sculptures.  

Dante’s Daphne took a very long time to actually put the whole thing together. I want to say two years. Sometimes it gets so buried in there I’ll forget at the end because it’s built over such a long period of time; all the things. What goes out the door has to be good, but there’s been a lot of bad made in here. And some days I try to make really bad because sometimes when you make really bad, it’s really good. So that’s what we do here.