Swans and Ladies

I finished this little border last night as part of a larger project I'm working on for my last semester. I'm not sure how I'll fit it into a larger body of work, or if I even will use it for that at all, but it was so much fun to make and I'm quite pleased with it. It represents some of the Wish Maidens of Odin turning from swans back into ladies.


The Wish Maidens take on many different forms of birds, from ravens to swans, to accomplish the tasks Odin sets to them. It makes me think of Zechariah 5:9, in which two spiritual beings in the shape of women with stork wings (it is unclear if they are angels or merely agents of God as the wind is) carry away a wicked woman. Quite a fascinating verse, with much controversy surrounding it.

In just a few days, I'll be back to another semester. This time, however, I only have 7 hours of classes, which means I will actually get time to *gasp* work on art like I'm supposed to be doing instead of writing papers about art and reading articles about art upon which to write papers. For my research paper last semester, I had far past the limit of books allowed to be checked out at the library, and that was only for a 15-20 page paper. (I won't even mention the number of journal articles I had.) The Interlibrary Loan officer probably came to dread hearing my name, I sent so many requests for books from other libraries.

Then I would come up to the checkout desk with an enormous load, and the librarians would inform me with popping eyes and a confused smile that I didn't have to check out the entire library. The nice librarian who allowed me to check out books past the limit informed me I was the first person to ever do so in all his years of working at the library. This surprised me; before college when I had time to actually read for pleasure, I would routinely check out the limit of books and more if allowed at our local library.

Anyway, now when I walk past the library, I get a sinking feeling until I remember that I never have to take that terrible class again and I can actually go to the library and check out things I want to, oh wonder of wonders! I would rather take another upper level math class than write another paper, and that's saying something.