TERRY MARKS-TARLOW
This pandemic goes on and on with a persistence hard to believe! And yet, life in all its permutations is fundamentally unpredictable. The entire world seems to have taken a turn towards sickness. Mental health needs in this country are staggering. Every psychotherapist I know has a full practice. Archetypally, Gaia appears to be protesting centuries of ravishment by humankind’s greedy presence. Now everyone is forced into stillness. The Earth’s vitality is in fragments.
The snake is an ambivalent symbol of good and evil. It represents both the toxin and the cure. Two snakes wrap around the central staff of the Caduceus, symbol of healing in Western medicine.
Serpent Splintered
(Digital combined with Hand-Drawn Art, 8.5” x 11”)
This image is drawn from a graphic novel in preparation for publication with colleague Leanne Domash called, The Eel & the Blowfish: A Graphic Tale of Dreams, Trauma & Healing. The Serpent Splintered comes from the underwater nightmare of a young woman who was incested as a child by her brother. After transforming into a blowfish, the woman gains the power to shoot her toxins. She blows to bits her brother, now transformed into an eel. This terrifying dream begins her journey toward healing trauma.