In this series, I created a female character with connections to the jester/sacred fool archetype, such as the Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear. This is the character who tells Lear the terrible truth about himself, as he has no fear of the king’s displeasure and has nothing to lose by his candor.

As an archetype, the Fool is a character who breaks down rules and social conventions, sometimes fueled by an innocent naivete that may lead to dangerous encounters. In this series, the Fool is a naked, horned female character. She is naked because she reminds us that rules, assumptions and rituals are merely a set of conventions, optional like clothes. She is horned because she embodies the evolution of consciousness that would heal the broken connection between ourselves and our animal existence, between the earth and ourselves. She is placed in varied circumstances and surroundings because this is the picture of an individual soul meeting life, taking risks, developing consciousness, confronting fear and ultimately finding balance in surrender.

I have used recurring symbols in this series, One is the giant jingle bell, a medieval symbol for the jester/fool. Another is her nearly constant companion, a giant bird. The bird is sometimes a sheltering presence, sometimes a horrific harbinger of things that must be faced, of the necessity to explore hidden truths in ourselves. Always it is an equivalent for divine intervention, transcendence.