Rattle Musings

I sent the rattles off to a show in Santa Ysabel, at the Santa Ysabel Gallery and it got me thinking...what was I thinking you ask? 

Rattles are instruments of ritual used to put the participant in the correct state of mind for the ceremony. They also have the history of being toys given to infants, also to put them in the correct state of mind, i.e. quite.

         The rattle babies seem to scream quietly, until shaken. They are a combination of our animal and human selves.  As is the tradition in composite creates they are given aspects of the animal they are combined with, sort of a shadow self and or an animal guide. I also feel compelled to give them the tools they may need to survive. A baby human, bird or deer all need protection and camouflage. A hawk needs the rabbit, a fish the sea. Batboy instead carries the weight of our fear of our animal selves in his little body. He carries the burden of the love/hate relationship we have with this myth of the super hero/monster. A human who carries too much animal, the unwelcome aspects (the wolf-the bat) becomes either a hero or quickly an evil creature to be avoided or stamped out.  But as a baby we feel connected somehow to this animal and thereby to ourselves. I know some may look and see only the strangeness of it all but I’m hoping for a small recognition to the self.