IF...Train

"I'm always running behind the time.Just like this train. Shaking into town. With the brakes complaining ..."  Joni Mitchell - Just Like This Train

IF... Wild

yesterday night, in a moment of relax from my job, I was thinking about an image to sketch for this week's Illustration Friday topic "Wild". I took my colored pencils and in a few minute a sort of sad blue yeti, sitting on a red chair, came to life on my piece of paper. It was not enough. Still the image lacked something... so I decided to put the poor tamed creature in chains and close it in a bottle, just like student Anselmus in E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story "Der Goldene Topf". Don't you feel a little bit of sympathy for this formerly wild strange elf?

IF... Eye Glasses

IF... Yesterday

IF... Wool

IF... Wheel

"My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel; I know not where I am nor what I do"

William Shakespeare, Henry VI 

IF... Wings

“Black birds storms appear in the air,

 a dark prophecy over Rouen sky”

Last October I was asked to contribute with an illustration to a limited edition of a book celebrating 40 years of career of  Italian singer and composer Alice. I immediately thought about illustrating the few verses above, taken  from a song by Italian musician Mino diMartino, included in Alice’s latest cd “Samsara”. The text of the song is an intimate, evocative portrait of Joan of Arc, strange topic enough for a pop music song! This is the genesis of this acrylic on paper (cm 30 x cm 25), which I titled “Il Cielo di Rouen” (Rouen Sky). Hope you like it!