if: puzzled

if: scattered

if: contraption

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if: ferocious

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and in other fascinating news: the dead sea scrolls online

if: mesmerizing

if: duet

if: immovable

Acrylics. Part of a color-series I've been working on for months. Each painting has a different color background and represents a different passage of a children's novel I've been working on too.

Colors have forever interested me as a theme. For a year I held a column in a magazine about them. And once I had a grant to write a novel where the cochinillla (the insect that produces red dye) was the main character. Sometimes I think my color book is something I will write when I'm 80 and in the first page I'll write: I have been preparing for this my whole life.

But in the meantime: I would love to know what do you think about this painting. 

And also,  if colors interest you too, I do recommend this amazing book.

if: atmosphere

I'm back from a beautiful vacation in North Carolina.

Only bad moment was during a hike in the Smokey Mountains when I almost stepped on a rattlesnake.

It was my fault.

(It's generally the human's fault, isn't it?)

I was dreaming (and dreading, but mostly dreaming) of seeing a bear, and looking around instead of at the ground.

When I heard the rattle noise (not that I knew what it was) and turned down, the snake was a foot distance from my foot. And it was a lot bigger than my foot. It was green. I can't really describe it much more because all I saw was its neck, all stiff and it´s open mouth. I froze. Then I jumped. It all happened quickly but it seemed long. My legs trembled for almost the rest of the walk.

Later, when we crossed a ranger and he told us rattlesnakes bites are not necessarily fatal (sometimes you only loose the leg...) I became kind of mystical about the incident. I take it as a metaphor, that I almost lost my leg (or died) because I was wishing for imaginary bears instead of looking at what was on my path, right in front of me. I take it as a suggestion to advance more mindfully.

Later that day I read that Cherokee people, who lived in those mountains, healed rattlesnake bites with plants and roots. And that they would use the exact same remedy on people who'd been bitten than on people who'd only dreamed of being bitten.

Atmosphere, such an external word... But aren't atmospheres made of perception? Aren't dreams full of them?

The day after, a local told me that if a rattlesnake looks you in the eye but does not bite you, it´s good luck. And so I choose to believe him!

IF: giant

Uff!! on Thurday but I made it!

For this giant I used the tecnique of Carl Cneut, an amazing flemish illustrator. There's a very cool video about it here. If you don't speak French or don't care for the talking, you can fast forward to the part where you can see directly the paper while Cneut paints one of his fairies. Worth your while!