Creature of Fate

IMAGE OF THE WEEK
© Durga Yael Bernhard

Like many of my experimental studies, Creature of Fate came about as the result of a fleeting intersection of content and medium.  The content was a desire to express my own ponderings about fate in visual form.  Change was afoot in my life, as I had recently gone through a divorce. The winds of fate blew through my life like a late winter storm.  In the face of unexpected tides, I tried to navigate as best I could and find a calm center.

The medium was this lovely sheet of textured rice paper that I found in my stash of coveted papers.  I longed to make a textured silhouette on this paper, reminiscent of cave paintings or woodcuts – shapes that would show off the organic texture of the fiber.

The creature is some kind of animal-like vessel – most likely doodled on a restaurant napkin before becoming the subject of this painting.  She is receptive, serene, and mermaid-like – minus the tail.  She’s also unresolved.  I must have been illustrating a whole picture book at the time, because I did not develop this idea any further and was forced to put it aside.  Deadlines and the demands of parenting took priority over fine art, causing a concept that could have been developed in ten different directions to sink back into the sea of images that constantly wash up on the shore of my brain.  Alas, it was not the fate of this creature to become the subject of a fully-developed painting.

Wishing you a very good week.

 

D Yael Bernhard
Author / Illustrator of:
LOVE IS – a unique crossover book for all ages
THE LIFE OF AN OLIVEExplore the life of a 2000-year-old olive tree
JUST LIKE ME, CLIMBING A TREE: Exploring Trees Around the World
NEVER SAY A MEAN WORD AGAIN – A Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review;
winner of the Sydney Taylor Award and National Jewish Book Council Award
THE DREIDEL THAT WOULDN’T SPIN –  A Benjamin Franklin Design Award Finalist;
a 2015 Finalist in USA Best Book Award’s “Children’s Religious” category
WHILE YOU ARE SLEEPING – A Children’s Book Council Notable Book
A RIDE ON MOTHER’S BACK – An American Bookseller Assoc. Pick of the List
THE JEWISH EYE 2018 / 5778 Calendar of Art
– and more!

 

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