Join us for an Opening Reception Celebration, no RSVP required
Prepare to be CHARMED....

MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
MARCH 8th INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
MARCH 6th - JOIN US AT GOLD BUG FOR A PARTY & CELEBRATE WITH US!

OPENING RECEPTION PARY
Forbidden Fruit, new art by Kristina Drake
March 6th, 5pm-9pm
Gold Bug / 38 E Holly Street
No RSVP Necessary 

On the evening of Friday, March 6th, between the hours of 5pm-9pm, the store will stay open late to celebrate, and everyone is invited! Please join us for the Opening Reception of Kristina Drake's newest collection of artwork- FORBIDDEN FRUIT- featuring wall hanging sculptures inspired by the Fruit which hung from the Tree of Knowledge and the symbolism of the Snake.

International Women's Day
International Women's Day is celebrated globally on March 8 every year, focussing on the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality. It is an official holiday in over 25 countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, and Vietnam. In China, many women are granted a half-day off work. In countries like Italy, men traditionally give yellow mimosa flowers to women. In Russia, flower sales double as people give tulips and roses to female colleagues and loved ones.

This evening is dedicated to celebrating women throughout the ages, and the men who have supported them. In honor of this, everyone in attendance will receive flowers, celebratory drinks, and an unforgettable visit from Katia, the SNAKE CHARMER, and her snake Adonis. 

*This evening promises to be special. We hope that you will grab all your friends and dress for fun.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Kristina Drake moved to California in 2014 where she currently lives and works. A sculptor since childhood, she explores themes such as death and change through the lens of the natural world. Animal skulls, insects and geology feature prominently in her art, impressing upon the viewer a sense of time and space. Working with a multitude of materials, Drake builds three dimensional form, but she is currently focused on utilizing two-part epoxy, resin and acrylic paint to create her pieces. 

THE SERPENT IN MYTH
“Amongst these forms was an unknown serpent, the monstrous Python,
also brought forth by the Earth at the time, though she cannot have wished for it.
Sprawling over Parnassus, it horribly frightened the new-born
peoples, until it was killed by the deadly shafts of Apollo,
whose only targets before were the timid gazelles and the roe deer.
The snake was transfixed by a thousand arrows (the quiver was almost emptied) and out of its wounds there spewed black gushes of venom.
In order that time should never destroy the fame of this exploit,
Apollo established the sacred games, attended by huge crowds,
the Pythian Games, called after the serpent he vanquished, Python.”
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.438-447)

Shown above: Priestess of Delphi (1891) by John Collier, showing the Pythia sitting on a tripod with vapor rising from the crack in the earth beneath her as she prophesied. Painting on view at The Art Gallery of South Australia.

In the earliest known Greek literature, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the site known as Delphi is consistently referred to as "rocky Pytho". A site known to earlier people to be the inhabitance of the great Python, an earthen deity related to fertility and rebirth, who sat at the sacred site of the Castilian Spring located there. 
It was not until later that the name Delphi appeared, believed to derive from delphys ("womb"), perhaps indicating the site's role as the "navel of the world" and/or its early association with the earth goddess Gaia, who is reported to have been honored on the site by earlier peoples with their own oracle, who sat over the curvaceous vapors emanating from the ground.
It was the Olympian god Apollo that came to earth searching for the Serpent to eliminate it, and the old belief system, before he could establish a temple in Delphi for himself and his followers. 
But the Oracle Pythia, and the reference to the earlier time, remained as the center of the sanctuary. With people traveling from far off places to seek her guidance. Until the end of the Roman Empire, when Teodosius, a key character in the establishment of Christianity, ordered the site closed forever, along with the divination rites performed there by people who considered themselves pagans. 
......But the snake lived on, finding its way into the Garden of Eden. And, onto our walls for this celebration of "Forbidden Fruit" and the Knowledge there.

*Perhaps in the next email I will expound on the geology of this particular site and the absolutely titillating, and terribly drawn out, academic debate over the likelihood that reality-altering gasses really did rise from the ground here. Or, ask me at the party :P