The oracle

Snakes show up a lot for me. In my dreams for one. I have a reoccurring dream of a two headed snake diviner named Carol that dispenses wisdom from the lap of a seated old man named Roy. In an infamous bite back in the year of 1999, in the garden where I fetch up garter snakes and let them play on my hands. The formlessness, the endless potential of shedding, the power of the feminine, cycles… they symbolize so much. Carl Jung interpreted the serpent as an archetype of the unconscious and personal transformation. And of course there is the original garden, where Adam and Eve’s “eyes were opened” by the serpent and they felt shame in their nakedness. I bear that interpretation little mind. I don’t prescribe to schools of thought built upon guilt and shame. Snakes are part of nature and all of nature is good.

Anyway, I drew this picture of a mid century woman, the American feminine archetype. I found the photographic negative of her in a vintage shop years ago and developed it in the darkroom. And then later I put a snake on her face. I think women, wrapped up in any package, are powerful.