Why all humans don't have wings, the old angel and other illustrations.

Hi! Welcome to all of you!

I have been reading the short stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and today I am sharing some of my illustrations based on the characters who moved me.

 I love the 'magical realism' which Marquez uses to interweave stories full of folklore, fantasy and deep lying human values. 

One of the stories I read, ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ prompted me to try these two illustrations and the third one too.

It's the story of a poor winged man who lands on the courtyard of Pelayo on a wet rainy day. He is imprisoned in the chicken coop and becomes an object of curiosity and cruel fun for the people who come in hordes expecting him to work miracles.  Pelayo and his wife lose no time in making money by charging to see the old man! 

The interest in the old man wanes only when the expected miracles don’t happen and the old man just sits patiently in a corner. The townspeople move on when they get a chance to see a spider woman with a horrifying tale of being turned into a spider as punishment for disobeying her parents. One day, as time passes, the old man regains his strength and flies away. 

I tried to draw the old man sitting huddled wearing an expression of long suffering patience. He neither poses as an angel…nor as a miracle worker. I also sketched this other version of the old man. The image of the spider woman is full of her own story of misfortune. She survives on meatballs tossed into her mouth by people. The spectacle of the spider woman attracted the people more than the silent, withdrawn ‘angel’. 

These townspeople, like people very often do in real life, reject the ‘angel’ because he doesn’t have the splendor or magnificence they associate with ‘angels’. It gave rise to a question in my mind, if the trappings of the ‘familiar’ is absent, isn't today’s fast, competitive world tuned to channel them out? Obliterate what is not commonly accepted or understood? 

 

 

 

 

Here is another version of the old man.  

The spider woman from

The Old Man With Enormous Wings.

If you are interested to read the full story, you can read it here. 

Now, on a lighter note, I would like to share a quick sketch, drawn on my cheap notebook page, from the picture I saw somewhere on the net, of a window and a door that captured my attention. 

 

 

Wonder who looks out through this window?

  

 

What lies beyond this door?

 

And now, I want to show my take on the Picasso prompt on Mix It Monthly

I drew the lady, collaged her on yellow background and a layer of few other collages.

 The words ‘Free your power to imagine’ resonated with me and the best time when our imagination comes out unrestricted is in our dreams…

or ‘bed-time theater’! 

I added elements of number by drawing in ten silver stars and the number 16 on her dress, which is important for me. 

The number prompt is for the challenge on Journal Journey's Ch-20 .

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy my work and join all the rest of us at

CED,

PPF, 

AJED

SS.    

APR