Our fairy-tale heroine stands surrounded by the allegorical creatures of her story, listening intently to a blackbird. The trickster crow, shape shifter, messenger of the gods, the raven is the first bird mentioned in the Torah when Noah releases it from his ark. In some mythologies the blackbird is the creator god, or a mediator animal between life and death and a powerful symbol of freedom and autonomy. And this figure, in her shimmering gown spectacularly painted life-size in watercolor, is likewise the strong-witted master of her soul. All her life, she was only waiting for this moment to arise.

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