I found some wonderful pieces of slag (the by-product of smelting ore to purify metals) from our local steel mills just downriver. The steel mills have been there for around 100 years or more, so this slag could be very old. I thought it would make great hair.
I also found what appeared to be an old outlet plug, from the 1920's, about the same era my own home was built.
I say "appeared", because it was then that I noticed the tiny horns on one end of the outlet plug. I turned the plug around just in time to see a small devil attempting to hide within the plug! His horns and tail were clearly showing as he tried to squeeze himself further into the outlet.
Suddenly, it all made sense! I had seen a serpent that very morning, along the shore. It had slithered away from me when I stole its likeness with my camera.
The fact is that there are actually many tiny Edens, and many tiny moral struggles, all around us, and angels and demons may be found anywhere and everywhere, at any time of the day or night. Therefore, my task was as clear as the glass I had collected (which is actually kind of frosty and nicely weathered...) I must make a mosaic showing the Angel on one shoulder, and the Devil on the other, just as we remember them from our childhood fables.
I pieced together a makeshift angel from tile, glass and beads...
...and positioned him opposite the devil, who is so ashamed of himself he cannot even face us.
I placed both creatures on the shoulders of my Hennessy Man, who wears his addictions even on his necktie.
He can use all the help he can get to resist the temptations that are choking him, because, after all, he's no choir boy.
Acrylic paint, glass, slag, ceramic tile, beads and outlet plug on marble.
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