Sky Goddess

Often times I start a drawing intrinsically, intuitively, not necessarily knowing yet where the source is. Only after working with the image for some time and having conversations with friends and colleagues that I am able to dig deeper and see how the image has developed and what possible relationship it has to the greater world outside of me.

For a few months now I've been working with this image that started off as a simple doodle on a page margin (now lost) and stuck in my mind. I later drew it again on the background of a litho print that I never finished.



Then carved it into a woodcut.



And started experimenting with a series of small monoprints that also included found textural elements like lace and embroidery.





I've talked with a few people about this image and this process of mine of drawing and printing and using textures. But this weekend when my friend Deb Santaro was visiting my studio, she saw something in the image that I had not. She made reference to the Egyptian Goddess Nut. In mythology, she is considered the protector of the inhabitants of earth, arching her body over separate the world from chaos and disorder.



Nut is represented by the sacred symbol of a ladder, used by Osiris to enter heaven and also placed in tombs to protect the dead. This also reminds me of the Christian symbol of Jacob's ladder, envisioned by Jacob in a dream as path between heaven and earth. Again, like the sky goddess, the symbol that unites two.

I am not yet sure what this means for me. Certainly there is a lot of chaos and disorder in my life... as I type this my son is poking at the CPU on the floor squealing "button!" and threatening to push the power off...