LADY MACBETH: SLEEP NO MORE

“My hands are red, but my heart is white.”

Mixed Media, 2024. AVAILABLE HERE.

Top Inner Lid: Letters from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth, in resin “water” in reference to the bathtub scene in the Macbeth apartments

Resin Crystal: Clear resin with black salt and red resin “blood,” underneath a miniature human heart and the quote “My hands are red, but my heart is white.” Representing Lady Macbeth’s walk down High St.

Locket: Brass locket with faceted garnet, representing the necklace given to Lady Macbeth at the Ball by Duncan

Bottles:

  1. Out, damned Spot: Rue for regret; rosemary for clarity and memory; thyme for fear vs courage (Lady Macbeth at the hanging, “screw your courage to the sticking place”); black salt for holding influence over another and for being trapped or cursed; marigold for grief; snapdragon for desperation. Sealed with black wax and gold ballroom symbol. On the bottom of the bottle is resin “blood-spatter” with the words “out, damned spot.”
  1. Plotting: acorn for ambition, hunger for power; peony for “righteous” fury, marriage; hydrangea and hibiscus for passion, tension, cruelty (representing the mattress dance); mugwort for prophecy, destiny; lily for violence, conflict. Hand-written quote “Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” Sealed with black wax and gold thistle symbol.
  1. King James: Lily of the valley for melancholy; heather for loneliness, solitude, a woman traveling alone; bleeding heart for sorrow and suffering. Sealed with black wax.
  1. “Be lion-mettled:” tiny screw-cap vial topped with a gold lion for ferocity and strength; filled with white resin representing the poison given to Lady Macduff, a nod to Danvers and Lady Macbeth’s plotting against her and Duncan.