Medusa is one of Kathryn Hastings' most personal and powerful symbols, representing the transformation of vulnerability into strength and righteous anger into protection.

For this seal, Hastings designed her own interpretation of the Gorgon using her profile as the model, transforming the artist herself into Medusa. She is alive, composed, beautiful, and entirely in possession of herself, with serpents emerging naturally from her hair.

For centuries, Medusa's visage was used as an apotropaic symbol, an image intended to turn evil away. The Gorgoneion appeared on armor, shields, temples, vessels, and thresholds as a form of protection. Even Athena bore the Gorgon's head upon her aegis.

There is a remarkable contradiction at the heart of Medusa: the woman who inspires fear becomes the image entrusted with protection.

In Hastings' symbolism, to become Medusa is to reclaim the definition of oneself. It is a refusal to accept an identity projected by another, or to take responsibility for another person's behavior. Medusa marks the moment a woman decides: you do not get to tell me who I am.

She no longer diminishes her power to make it comfortable for others. She can be beautiful and formidable, vulnerable and dangerous, protective precisely because she knows what it is to have needed protection herself.

Part self-portrait, part ancient talisman, Medusa is a guardian for letters, thresholds, and whatever is worth protecting.