In
September of 1998, at age 18, I had an encounter with a spider on the outside of my basement window. I was drawn in to take a closer look at the spider by its movement and the pattern on its abdomen. I perceived what looked like a pattern in the shape of a human eye on its abdomen, and the spider’s legs repeatedly pointed to and touched the eye. I felt a profound sense of oneness and self-identification with this spider, and a few days after this experience I decided that I wanted my nickname to be Spider.
Much later I learned that identification with a spider was an expression of the shadow side of my psyche that stemmed from psychological trauma I experienced in my youth. The straight lines of the web all converge under the eye on the spider in this piece to describe the sense of identity and awareness of self I felt while observing the spider. The abdomen and eye on the spider in the print are exaggerated because in my memory that is what stands out to me.