The Snake
This vessel gave Genevieve a way to express her own reflections on the political climate of 2016–2020, a period she felt was marked by hostility toward immigrants, women's rights, healthcare, and much more.
While researching how snakes have been portrayed throughout fables and folklore, Genevieve came across a 1963 recording by Oscar Brown Jr., itself drawn from Aesop's fable "The Farmer and the Viper." The story turns on a simple, unsettling idea: a creature reveals its true nature all along, and when it finally strikes, reminds its rescuer that she knew exactly what she was dealing with from the start. For Genevieve, this sentiment felt strikingly relevant to the political rhetoric and rallies of that era, and became the emotional core of this piece.
The vessel is made entirely of copper, with a rattlesnake meticulously chased and repoussé across its surface, scale by scale. Copper wire grasses rise from the base, forged at their tips to appear as though caught mid-motion in a desert wind. A flagstone base supports the copper vessel and its surrounding grasses.
Exhibited: River Market Regional Exhibition 2017, "Truth, Trust and Transcend"
Created: 2017
Photography: Terry Weckbaugh, Image Quest Photography
One of a kind
The Snake
This vessel gave Genevieve a way to express her own reflections on the political climate of 2016–2020, a period she felt was marked by hostility toward immigrants, women's rights, healthcare, and much more.
While researching how snakes have been portrayed throughout fables and folklore, Genevieve came across a 1963 recording by Oscar Brown Jr., itself drawn from Aesop's fable "The Farmer and the Viper." The story turns on a simple, unsettling idea: a creature reveals its true nature all along, and when it finally strikes, reminds its rescuer that she knew exactly what she was dealing with from the start. For Genevieve, this sentiment felt strikingly relevant to the political rhetoric and rallies of that era, and became the emotional core of this piece.
The vessel is made entirely of copper, with a rattlesnake meticulously chased and repoussé across its surface, scale by scale. Copper wire grasses rise from the base, forged at their tips to appear as though caught mid-motion in a desert wind. A flagstone base supports the copper vessel and its surrounding grasses.
Exhibited: River Market Regional Exhibition 2017, "Truth, Trust and Transcend"
Created: 2017
Photography: Terry Weckbaugh, Image Quest Photography
One of a kind
