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I call this one Falada, the Goose Girl's Best Friend.  It has a double layered reference. I dreamed of talking horses getting their heads cut off and nailed to trees when I was a child. Long before I ever remember hearing the Grimm's fairytale of the Goose Girl.  However, I can be none to sure of where the idea came from, or if its an archetypal one out of the deep unconscious of humanity.  Perhaps many other people dream the same thing. What does it speak to you, when you pass under?

What I do know is this is my first inspired large horse sculpture. After this one came the others. I adore this piece but due to my situation of moving from my home right now without a new home or studio yet, and having more than enough to put into storage already, I'd like to sell off this piece even if under market value just to give it a good home.  So that is why its here. It has been a very popular piece at my art shows. It kind of makes a loud statement.

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For those of you who do not know the fairytale of the Goose Girl:

In the story, the young princess is traveling to her prince’s castle where she is to be wed, carrying a handkerchief for protection with three drops of her mother’s blood, riding her magical horse Falada, who can talk. Along the way, her handmaiden watches the handkerchief fall from her bosom and float downstream, and immediately orders her to exchange outfits, so she arrives as the princess. Without protection and with her life threatened by the handmaiden, the princess, aghast, does as she is commanded. When they arrive at the castle, the “princess” orders the talking horse executed immediately for being such a nasty beast. She discards the princess to the lowest position, to tend the geese. The goose girl begs the butcher to hang her horse’s head above the garden gate so she can see it. 

Each day as she passes under the horse’s head with her flock of geese, they whisper to each other “if only your mother knew, how her heart would break in two” is what the horse whispered back. Each day this strange behavior is witnessed by the goose boy. He is obsessed with her but whenever he gets too close, she whispers to the wind to blow his hat away. A couple weeks of this crazy nonsense, the goose boy takes his complaints straight to the king - this new goose girl is nutters and needs to be removed at once. The goose boy explains some of the strange things that have been happening. 

The king summons the goose girl, and asks her to tell her story. Because she is under oath, she cannot. So he tells her to go tell it to the old black stove downstairs just to get it off her chest. So she tells her story to the stove, all the while the king is upstairs listening at the stove pipe. He learns of her true identity!

He has her bathed and clothed in the finest robes, and invites her to the dining table that night. At this table, the king asks the “princess-handmaiden” what should be done with a servant that turns against their lord and lady. She says such a servant should be stripped naked and placed in a barrel full of spikes pointing inward, and dragged around town behind a horse. And so this was done to the handmaiden.

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Pretty gruesome tale! Perhaps it resonates with you in some way?  Fairytales often resonate with collective unconscious energy, the parts of so many of us who feel we must mask our true identity to survive... wishing we'd be recognized for being special, our true selves, being invited to the feast.  It describes a healing journey many of us go on, seeking how to find a way to be who we really are. Or at least that is one layer I see at the moment.  Perhaps it means something entirely different for you.

More info on this sculpture and to see other works: http://mardistorm.com/the-goose-girls-best-friend-the-horse-head-trophy/

Note there is no shipping. Please come pick up the piece or have it picked up, by March 26th. I feel shipping it could damage this artwork. Located in Sonoma County, CA.  

Good luck and happy bidding! I'm excited to see where this artwork will land. 

Its approximately 2.5 ft wide x 2.5 ft deep x 3 ft tall. Made of wood, wire, paper mache, rope, acrylic paint.

Feel free to ask any questions.  

Please see my other life-size sea horse sculpture up for auction by clicking on "see other items"!