New Print: Medusa and Rangda

This print depicts two very similar characters from very different cultures: Greece’s Medusa and Bali’s Rangda. It is available as a 1- or 2-color print.

The words for this print are from a chapter in the Kalevala that is rather harsh. In it, an old woman tells a young bride how her new life with her husband and his family will be painful, lonely and difficult. She gives detailed instructions on how to best perform all her arduous chores despite the thanklessness and cruelty she will receive in return. The old woman then goes on to tell how she did all of this good work and ended up hated, rejected and homeless after doing everything right. It’s a rough go.

The stories of Medusa and Rangda describe an archetype of young female power and intelligence that receives so much cruelty and abuse that it becomes hardened and angry. These characters then direct that anger outward, arbitrarily and with great destructive force. It’s the same archetype that we find in characters like Japan’s lantern ghost, England’s Morgan Le Fay, Mexico’s La Llorona, Stephen King’s Carrie and to some degree India’s Kali. Tupac was referring to something similar when he said, “The Hate U Give Little Infants, Fucks Everyone!”