Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Snake

Shedding an old skin is always a little frightening, and that is exactly why it is necessary. The snake feels like a being in which good fortune and fear dwell together. In this Year of the Snake work, among its many symbols, I lingered longest on the sense of change. It struck me that without shedding there is no growth, and without letting go of what has passed there is no moving on. Life, too, has moments when we must set down what is familiar. However anxious it makes us, only by passing through that process does a new self emerge. The snake came to me as a being that carries the power of change and rebirth.