Kali Maa is not the bloodthirsty goddess of violent death she is often perceived to be. She is Mother Time; eternal, fearsome, and precious. What she slays is the ego, the masks we wear, and cuts right to the heart of the matter. She is the lioness protecting her cubs, the goddess of "tough love". On a more esoteric level she represents time and energy while Sri Shiva is consciousness - each unable to exist without the other.

But her reputation proceeds her, and so I chose the Death Adder (Acanthophis) for the Medusa hair. Maa Kali is said to remove the fear of death, and Blue Gorgon is all about removing fear of snakes... while retaining a healthy respect for what they're capable of! Shiva, as always, is shown with a cobra although I didn't go for any particular realistic species of cobra in favor of using a complementary color to offset all the red.

I'm really pleased with how this came out. I've had the image in my mind a long time, it's nice to finally get it from there to completion. Inverting the inking was really experimental for me, but it worked really nicely I think.