I was in my early thirties and had been working in my downtown studio for a couple of years when I had a stark dream of a woman in a black hooded cape walking in the desert toward a hazy mountain range in the distance. When she turned around I saw she was green. It was impossible to resist recreating the image. I made a cast of my face, added mud and painted the muddy cast green. Using mud was disgustingly wonderful and using it felt like home.
Following the black-hooded, green-faced woman took courage. I’m glad I had the wisdom to understand the emotional implications of the two diverse images—buried versus realized self.
I believe Eve’s forbidden apple was green.
