Serpent & Tree

This painting conjures a vision steeped in myth, where tree and serpent converge in a moment of confrontation and enchantment. The tree, its trunk thick with faces carved in wood, recalls ancient tales of groves haunted by imprisoned souls—dryads, spirits, or the cursed dead, bound to bark and root. Their open mouths seem to wail or chant, as if the tree itself is alive with lament.

Coiling upward, the serpent embodies another archetype: knowledge, danger, and transformation. Its human-like face, radiant and strange, suggests an oracle or tempter, a being who crosses the boundary between beast and god. The upward gaze of this serpent-being toward the faces in the tree creates a tension between earthbound imprisonment and the possibility of transcendence.

The composition echoes primordial myths—the serpent of Eden, the world-serpent Jörmungandr, or the many dragons who guard sacred trees in folklore. Here, the serpent does not devour but communes, its presence both threatening and revelatory. It is as though the painting captures the eternal moment where nature’s darker mysteries confront humankind’s yearning to know, binding tree, serpent, and spirit in a single mythic tableau.