This is a piece I did back in 2008. I used a selection from it as the sidebar of the mockman.com blog from 2009-2011, but Jay convinced me that it was too jarring an image to show up on the top page all the time. I intended this piece (a gift to a friend) to send an encouraging message of cooperation — the two birds working together to defeat the snakes — but really, it isn’t encouraging at all. The primary mood is of anger and conflict — the sternly judging eyes of the birds, the violence of the flames and ice and the squirming animals.