This drawing was the first in a series inspired by stories my father told me about flowers he remembers from his childhood. I drew this image from a photo of a Korean pasqueflower, which based on Korean folklore is also known as the “grandmother flower.” 

As the drawing came to life, I felt it had a strong likeness to a spider (and the spider in Louise Bourgeois’ famous sculpture called ‘Maman’ came to mind). The message the flower seemed to “say” to me when I was drawing it was:  “pay attention, your destiny depends on it.”

I think of spiders as mysterious master weavers and can see how they could be symbolically connected to our mothers and grandmothers, who feel like the first weavers of our lives - carrying us from the moment we are conceived and then bringing us into this world where we each are born with the threads that ultimately define the tapestry of life we must weave for ourselves.  

I think those threads that are part of us when we are born define the FATE we are born with but then DESTINY feels a little different. Destiny feels more like it is about how we choose what to do with the threads we start with, what we choose to do with all the gifts and all the suffering we experience in our lives. In that way, destiny feels powerfully terrifying and potentially so beautiful all at once. 

Sort of like this flower - a little scary yet strangely beautiful and mesmerizing in a way too!