“The Holiest Curse”. The series of five drawings explores the archetype of the mother goddess confronted by various scenarios inspired by the world around us. She is surrounded by the ouroboros, signifying the eternal cycle of rebirth and destruction. Each drawing unpacks themes of numerology, the dualistic nature of reality, divinity, personal experiences and historic recurrence. “The Holiest Curse’’ refers to human awareness as both a blessing and a curse.

An overwhelming theme of the series is the relationship between polarities, Ishtar herself is the goddess of love and war. This echoes the duality all humans experience within their character through our internal dialogue. The scenery in the drawings is intended to create some sense of contrast within the singular drawings and as a sequence. For example; in the second piece entitled “The Holy Two”’ depicts a “Madonna and Child” like scene surrounded by debauchery violence and death.

The only constant, unchanged component within the series is the symbol of the Ouroboros, which is the symbol of renewal, suggesting change is constant. The concept of the circle was a deliberate exploration in this series, and the concept of time repeating itself. A concept further expressed by the beginning and ending of the drawings, starting with the goddess unmasking herself, and in the final piece she is masked once again.