In this work, the wrapped, shrouded figure came first.

On it are three small white female figures modeled on the three "Stiff white ladies" found in the burial of a ten-year-old girl in Moldavia, 3500 B.C. (as shown in "The Language of the Goddess" by Marija Gimbutas). I was very touched by these burial offerings.

Around the shrouded figure came other images of death and loss:

• an image of my mother from a recent dream
• the painted burial pot I had made for my mother's ashes
• my cat Carrot who had died in the Fall
• a dream of a rabbit with the face of my late friend Peggy
• the skeleton of a baby, which I associated with the abortion I had had long ago.

Putting these images together with ones of rebirth, such as the snakes shedding their skins, helped me feel some wholeness and resolution in contemplating the cycle of life and death.