SnaiL.A

I am not afraid of little critters. Actually. I adore most furry, leggy, creepy little things. But there are two things that send childhood nightmares flooding into my brain: black spikey caterpillars and BIG slimy snails.

When I used to visit my father's family in Kocice Czechoslovakia, we used to walk down these long concrete steps. I don't remember why--I think my first time there i was around 7 or 8. But i remember walking down these steps greeted by a horrific CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH as the entire staircase was speckled with large snails and all I could do to keep walking down the steps was to step on them. From that day i couldn't look at a snail without feeling that CRUNCH pierce through my body.

Just yesterday it was raining in LA. Pouring. I ran from my job at the Fowler Museum to my graduate department and almost fell over while trying to dodge the snails that I suddenly realized were in my path. The smells, sounds, and large-scale childlike images came back to mind for those seconds. I decided to take a picture, hoping that it might somehow cathartically cleanse my brain from their negative and yet somehow nostalgic association.