I live out in the country and I have wildflowers (and a few weeds) growing outside of my studio. I have seen a few snakes outside from time to time - mostly small ones - a brownish one less than a foot long, a thin green one that may have been 3 feet long, another reddish-brown one that seemed to shoot straight into the ground. More of a variety than what I have seen in the past.

I have never seen one inside any of my houses, though, until last week. I have my studio downstairs. There are two main rooms - one carpeted and one not (the messy painting room) - plus a furnace room that I sometimes use to photograph art - and a bathroom. I was just coming out of the messy room after getting my coffee and here was a thick black line that tapered to a point. At first I thought it could be a piece of black felt - because I have some of it around for backgrounds when photographing. The room was fairly dark - but I thought I could make out where it looked more three-dimensional than a piece of felt would look. It seemed to have some light shining on it in a way that felt would not. And then it moved its tail. So.

I started painting snakes a year or so ago. So it's interesting to me to have one visit my studio. It's hard tellin' how much time it spends there. 

The first couple of days after the snake's appearance - I mostly stayed upstairs. But I'm getting more used to the idea. We put out more poison for the mice - which seem to love it down there. And I try to make noise when I walk around so I don't surprise it. 

The experience has caused me to reflect on how I feel about snakes. It's one thing to see them outside and in the wild - and it's something else when they are able to get in one's home. They are able to be so quiet and move in way that seems so effortless (whether it is or not). But they mostly manage to stay hidden from view - unlike in my paintings - where they have been coming out to interact with (or at least look at) people.

So I had to consider what snakes represent to me - and I think it is Nature, itself (the living, wild part of Nature), taking the form of a snake. It can also mean regeneration - but definitely NOT evil - and not necessarily knowledge or cunning, either. And that is what I felt like with the snake in my house - that Nature, itself had come inside my house and there was little that I could do about it (besides trying to get rid of it's food source - and look for holes to fill). So I may as well get used to it.