Here is a new digital drawing I finished recently. I wasn’t sure that I’d share it, it’s a sketch of a memory done for myself, but I like it and maybe you will too.
Last summer, early June, 2017, I was out hiking and heard a commotion directly up the hill from me. Looking up, I saw a ball of scales rolling down. I stepped away a little bit, and it was a snake all coiled up around itself, rolling down towards me. Actually, at first I thought it was two snakes either fighting or copulating, but as I watched it I could see it was just one… a ball ‘o bullsnake. I watched the snake uncoil, and saw it was guarding an egg. Finally, the snake straightened itself out, collected the egg in it’s mouth, and quickly moved into the grass. It was a very cool thing to see, a nice surprise, and something I’d never thought about thinking to see. I imagine that snake must have raided a nest up in an overhead tree, guarding the egg it launched itself from the nest, and rolled down the hill next to me. Pretty neat-o!
And in more ways than one. I’ve studied symbolism pretty much my whole life. Even as a very young kid, I collected books on visual symbols. Or I’d nerd out at the library and pour over them. I’ve always been that way. So as I watched that snake uncoil, I also saw that ancient symbol playing out in the wild. I saw the World Egg, that great Orphic Egg, too. And I’d been meaning to draw it out ever since.
