SHANA JAMES - Circe - How Do You See Your Divinity? (diptych)

How Do You See Your Divinity? 

(diptych) 2025 Linocut on Somerset 100% Cotton Paper, Editioned to 3 

In Madeline Miller’s novel Circe, the Greek goddess describes her divinity as being “like a conch shell”—a powerful metaphor for growth and transformation. The conch shell forms gradually as the creature inside builds it, layer by layer, expanding in a spiralling pattern as it grows. It is not separate from the creature, but created by it, reflecting an inner process of becoming. The shell grows naturally and follows the Fibonacci spiral, a form I have been interested in for its repetition throughout nature and its use as a compositional element in art history - it suggests both growth and return, expansion and continuity.

In this linocut I reimagine Circe as a symbol of self-actualisation and resilience. She holds an uprooted willow, flexible and enduring, beneath shifting skies; embodying her evolving power and identity. Like the conch shell, Circe’s divinity is not something imposed from outside, but something she creates from within, shaped by her experiences and choices.

Circe’s clothing reference her deep connection to the natural world and her knowledge of plants, which in the novel become the source of her magical strength. Through her mastery of herbs and roots, Circe learns to heal, transform, and protect, drawing power from the living landscape around her.