Year of the Snake

         Welcome to the Year of the Snake.  It’s the year of the wood snake, to be specific, and while I was going to celebrate with wood block prints anyway, this just makes it even more appropriate.  Snakes are not as popular in art as, say, horses, and often when they do appear they’re cast in the role of the villain.  You can see some examples in my previous posts on the Oillipheist, the Serpent in Eden, and a sea serpent.

        Serpents have also appeared with many variations in mythology and fantasy, including amphiptere, ouroboros, amphisbaena, and basilisk.  Fantasy snakes are the only ones I’ve actually done block prints of myself, although I keep thinking I may get around to a garter snake at some point.  Today, though, I wanted to share some real life snake block print goodness.

First up is this amazing piece by M.C. Escher, which certainly has a touch of the fantastic, but with beautifully life-like grass snakes.  This piece is printed with three blocks, green, orange, and black, but even more interesting to me is that each block is only a third of the circle, and was printed three times to complete the whole 360°.  You can’t see the seams at all!

        The next piece seems very appropriate to the Lunar New Year, since it includes peonies and has the look of a paper cutout, both of which are auspicious symbols associated with New Year celebrations.  The snake is a garter snake, which is the kind I see around my house.  I’m very fond of them and I think this piece is particularly beautiful.

        Our next snake is out in the wild in a more tropical setting.  It comes from Robert Gibbings, who did a number of wood block prints in South Seas settings.  I find the composition interesting, as it is full and varied to suggest a jungle, but simultaneously very even and measured in the placement of each element.  Just like in real life, the snake doesn’t necessarily want to be a focal point, and blends with the lines of branches.  I don’t know what exact species it's meant to be, but it looks like some sort of boa.

        Today’s oldest snake comes from the Japanese Picture Book of Crawling Creatures from 1788.  Personally, I love to see these crawling creatures getting some love, and in the book they’re accompanied by poems.  This is a rat snake and looks quite masterful, although interestingly, its tongue is not forked.

        Finally, a dramatic snake among nettle leaves.  This one is a puzzle block print, which means it was carved as a single block, but the different colored areas were then cut apart, like pieces of a puzzle, in order to be inked separately.  The species of snake isn’t specified for this one, but it’s certainly a very handsome creature.  I hope it will be up to the task of bringing some good fortune this year.

        Plus, by all means revisit a very dramatic snake here in Lino Prints by Harris.

        You can’t get much more grounded than snakes, and this will be a year to keep yourself firmly supported by all the truly important things.

[Pictures: Snakes, woodcut by M.C. Escher, 1969 (Image from Escher in het Paleis);

Oracle, woodcut by Maarit Hänninen, 2025 (Image from MaaritHanninen.com);

Snake in Trees, wood engraving by Robert Gibbings, 1934 (Image from Burstow & Hewett);

Rat Snake, color woodblock by Kitagawa Utamaro from Ehon mushi erami, 1788 (Image from The Met);

Snake and Nettle, linocut by Kerry Pagdin (Image from the artist’s Etsy shop WaywardCitizen).]