Black hair with golds
Morgana le Fay – Mistress of the Dark – Merlin’s dark Shadow – Lady of the Woods – Handmade Marionette Puppet by the Squeaking Tribe.

Gorgons/Succubi

I’ve always been a fan of the Greek myth Of Perseus and Medusa, the serpent-haired maiden whose gaze would turn flesh to stone. And like many of these stories, I always found myself on the side of the villain rather than the hero who always appeared vainglorious and somewhat shallow. Medusa was one of three Gorgon sisters and the only one of them born not just mortal but beautiful. Attracting the attention of the god Poseidon, she incurred the jealous wrath of Athena who in turn cursed her with a hideous new countenance and snakes for hair, a face so foul it turned to stone all who saw her. She was eventually beheaded by Perseus who used his shield as a mirror to counteract her ‘ability’ and who then continued using her still-potent head to dispatch his enemies before eventually gifting it to Athena. There’s actually a lot more to Medusa’s tale following her death at Perseus’ hands, not the least of which casts her as the mother of Pegasus, the winged horse which sprang from her lifeblood as she lay dying.

For me, however, it is the image of her as a beautiful, ethereal, much-misunderstood woman of power which I continue to celebrate through these designs. The hair-of-serpents I’ve rendered more symbolic than literal, focussing on a range of colour schemes, textiles and objets-de-art to capture instead the glamour and majesty inherent inside her as a maligned mistress of the occult. I sometimes think of these pieces as Succubi, too, female daemons whose beauty casts a spell of enthralment over those they turn their attentions on. Similarly, the succubi are the daughters of the much-maligned first woman, Lilith, who was cast down by God for her very equanimity to Adam and replaced by the more subservient Eve, crafted from Adam’s rib.

Whichever way you would like to perceive them, I take great pleasure and artistic freedom in really exploring the details in the textures and colours of the materials and of making the most of every fragment that contributes to the final piece. Hopefully the magick and mystery of the female form finds some fey resonance from the experience. Like my larger marionette designs – The Ladies of the Woods, et al – I often take the four seasons as inspiration for my palette and in selecting materials for the piece. The results create quite separate and unique emotions, differing aspects which speak different things to different people.

Enjoy!

Marionette full height is approximately 115cm.