'Your Move', Desert Dark-morph Rattlesnake Print

This is one old extremely well-fed, dark-morph Desert Viper. He has abundant segments on his tail, and he’s larger than any rattlesnake I have ever come across in my travels. He’s coiled and taught. Clearly, he has sent one warning shot with a rattle shake to indicate how deadly he is. He has explained his terms. Now he tenses up in a writhing mess of potential energy, ready to advance his reach. He’s an old desert dragon, experience tells him to wait. He knows what he can do, but he has learned it is wise to be patient. This sculpture is the precipice between communication of intent and a really bad day. The antique thrown horseshoe in the sculpt may have been the really bad day. Perhaps for the horse, or more for the cowboy. Horses spook. A rattlesnake is easily the reason a horse throws a shoe, and often his rider as collateral. The old nails embedded in the antique make it clear the shoe was thrown rather than intentionally removed by a Farrier. The sculpture is mixed materials. The rattlesnake is mild steel, copper, and chromium. He has been heat-treated to a gunmetal grey tone that melanistic dark-morph vipers present in the higher elevations in Arizona. The antique horseshoe is forged steel with years of Sonoran Desert exposure.