Playing with the Dragon

"Snowballs? Mary rolled her eyes. 

What would her child think of next?"

I seem to be moving into rescue art (for the prevention of cruelty to animals in art), as well as rescue stuffed animals. 
(See also my rescue matador.)

Last night I adapted this Ethiopian Coptic Christian hand-painted diptych that I got from the thrift store:
now St. George and the dragon are playing with baby Jesus, instead of George lancing the dragon through the mouth.

The diptych is small––each wooden panel would fit in your hand.
The miraculous snowballs are vintage, decorative pin heads. 
I carved holes for them to rest in, so they are 3D but not sitting on the surface of the panels.

As I worked on this piece, I thought of how wise the Dalai Lama's advice is, to consider staying within the religion you were born into, rather than converting to another. 

I'd been baffled when I first read that advice. (It's just a suggestion, not a rule. Like staying with a person you married, there are limits to this being a good idea!). Potentially, it has a lot going for it. 
I've come to feel, for instance, that you have more license to mess with your birthright than with something you chose (toward which you might feel more like, Who am I to mess with this?).

Along those lines, I have an easier time choosing whether or not to put my feet up on my family's furniture--and to accept the consequences, whatever they might be.

I was enjoying that familiarity as I changed this panel. 
I would NOT adapt the icons of another religion: 
I wouldn't trust that I understood fully enough what was negotiable and what was not, even, I suspect, if I'd converted to that religion––at least not for a good, long time. 

Anyway, sticking with my culture's religion has paid off for me:
 I'm perfectly comfortable depicting Saint George changing the dragon through loving play rather than through violence. 

(Or, as Art Sparker implies, perhaps it's the other way round: the Dragon changed George...)