Ananke (Goddess of Necessity) and the Moirai (The Fates)

The Moirai were the three Greek Fates, whose powers over destiny were ungovernable by even the gods. Clotho spun the thread of life and was associated with the present, Lachesis measured the thread out and was associated with the future, and Atropos cut the thread and was associated with the past. In Plato’s Republic, their mother was Ananke, the Goddess of Necessity—”the primeval goddess of inevitability.” These pieces are based on my mother and sisters. Not that we are the Fates, but all of us have interests in fibers and thread.

As I worked on our faces, I though about the idea of Fate and how at can feel ungovernable. How it can keep us from being awake to what is and can make us more attuned to the past or to the future. Can being awake to the present come with age? Does more life experience give us a sense of flexibility? Or of inevitability?