About six years ago I rented an old stone cottage in a country town. Shortly after I moved in I swept the cobwebs off the verandah. In a dusty corner I found the carcass of a little skink – a kind of lizard. Its body had mummified and was perfectly preserved. It was a curious find and I put it away in a box with other odd things I’ve found. Recently I came across it again and placed it on my work table.

This weekend I incorporated the lizard into a talisman. In the process I had to think about what the lizard represented. The metaphysical properties and messages of animals are found through observing their behaviour and thinking about what that symbolizes, The more I thought about lizards the more I realized my little skink can be seen as a symbol for this stage of lockdown.

Lizards have the…