Gertrude Guarding the Lost Inca Gold

ARTIST: William Louis ("Bill") McDonald Senior.

COMPANY: Argonaut-GreyWolf.

CLIENT: Me. I had the privilege of the responsibility for the care, feeding and husbandry of Gertrude the two-headed Pituophis melanoleucus Florida pine snake who was an active member of the Screen Actor's Guild until her death in or around 1990. After that, she was taxidermized (taxidermied [sp]?) and was maintained on display for the Russo's Pets chain of mall pet stores that was owned by Jerry and Lou Russo of Newport Beach, California until Jerry's death and Danny Dijacimo's incarceration also circa 1988 to 1990.

PURPOSE: To promote Gertrude's motion picture career which included 1973's "Sssssssssssssss," starring Strother Martin, Heather Menzies and a very young Dirk Benedict in his first film role; and 1980's "Resurrection," starring Ellen Bernstein. Gertrude was a Pituophis melanoleucus, commonly known as the pine snake, belonging to a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the southeastern United States. Three subspecies are currently recognized as being valid.

YEAR: 2020.

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MEDIA: The electronic camera from my trusty android phone utilizing the most excellent macro-lens function I could have imagined in such a system.

NOTES: From Wikipedia: Edna (Ellen Burstyn) has a near-death experience when she and her husband drive off a cliff. Widowed and paralyzed, Edna returns to Kansas with her grandparents, noticing the curious effect her touch has on a girl's bleeding nose along the way. Her gift for healing people attracts the attention of a small-town community, including a young man (Sam Shepard) who becomes her lover. An agnostic herself despite her powers, Edna finds her lover has a dangerous obsession with religion.

FROM IMDb: Gertrude co-starred with Ellen Burstyn in "Resurrection," an unforgettable story of love and devotion, Ellen Burstyn delivers a tour-de-force performance as a woman who experiences clinical death and returns to life with the amazing ability to heal others. Attributing her powers to human love rather than divine intervention, she begins to aid the residents of her childhood town. After healing a zealous young farmer (Sam Shepard), she starts to fall in love with him. As their affair develops, he tries to make her confess that her powers come from God and not from within. Her refusal leads to a violent climax that will change the healer and all who touch her forever.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: "Sssssss" (released as "Ssssnake" in the United Kingdom and Japan) is a 1973 American horror film starring Strother Martin, Dirk Benedict and Heather Menzies. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski and written by Hal Dresner and Daniel C. Striepeke, the latter of whom also produced the film. The make-up effects were created by John Chambers and Nick Marcellino. It received a nomination for the Best Science Fiction Film award of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1975.

The "Lost Inca Treasure" I was drawing in 1976 was the legendary “Treasure of the Trinity,” a mythical stash of Incan gold believed to be hidden off the coast of Brazil for nearly 500 years. The treasure was possibly tracked or associated with the Ilha da Queimada Grande (aka Snake Island), a small island that is the only known home of the golden lancehead pit viper, one of the most venomous snakes in the world.
In the year 1524, Portuguese conquistador Aleixo Garcia leads an expedition through the uncharted jungles of Brazil in a quest for Incan gold. Allied with thousands of warriors from the Guaraní people, they attack and pillage Incan settlements as they march inland. Garcia reportedly amasses a vast fortune before he is finally driven back by the great Incan king Huayna Capac and his army.

But, then, greed takes hold of Garcia’s allies, and the Guaraní warriors attack and kill Garcia and his men, claiming the treasure for themselves. The Incan gold reportedly makes its way to the coast, [where], legend has it, the locals, fearing attacks on their own villages, hide the fortune in the most daunting and secure place they know of: Snake Island.

Sixteenth Century English explorer Thomas Cavendish and a Jesuit friar were also involved.

OR: In 1524 the Portuguese navigator Aleixo Garcia left Santa Catarina in search of Incan gold and silver. With the help of the Guaraní, he headed inland using the intricate system of Amazon trails known as Peabiru.

With the help of thousands of Guaraní, Garcia attacked and looted a town near Potosi, taking much gold and silver from the Inca king, Huayna Capac. In addition to the gold and silver, Garcia also stole a number of artifacts, called “Machines of Viracocha,” made of an unknown red metal. According to a contemporary group of mathematician priests, those artifacts belonged to a very