Would Nancy Spungen have worn this?

[d_aulnoy]

Well, no.  But I'm rather pleased with it anyway.

Inspired by Veronica Schanoes' "Rats" (Interfictions, ed. Delia Sherman & Theodora Goss, Small Beer Press, Boston, 2007), "Lily, Surrounded by Rats" is made up of antique faceted gunmetal glass beads,  twinned black stick pearls, and a luminous tear-drop of jelly glass found in a junk shop.  "Rats" is a fairy tale inspired by a nightmare, a retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" which overlays the death and life of Nancy Spungen, late of punk-rock legend.  I read "Rats" for the first time in the spring of 2006, I think, knowing nothing about Nancy Spungen or Sid Vicious - all I knew was that it was a beautiful, mind-blowing, heart-breaking revision of a fairy tale that had never really appealed to me.  The innate passivity of "Sleeping Beauty" had ticked me off since I was a child (maybe I was too influenced by an early reading of Hamlet: the line that always rang in my subconscious following her curse was "were it not that I have bad dreams").  I could never figure out why she'd been so quick to trust, why she'd sought out the tender prick of the spindle in the first place.  But, give our heroin(e) a reason to seek the needle?  I'm there.  All I know is, "Rats" made me cry, which almost never happens.  So, when I heard about the auction, it seemed like a pretty natural choice for interpretation ....

More images can be found here: "Lily, Surrounded by Rats," coming soon to an IAF auction near you.