Desire and Destruction

These are from a set of illustrations commissioned for a poetry book about desire.

INSPIRATION:
As I was reading through this collection of poetry, a number of poems hinted at the idea of desire being potentially dangerous and destructive. The phrase that inspired the image of the fire was “I dreamt of smoke rising”, which to me suggested a potential unconscious wish towards destruction. The fingers/hand in the image are meant to suggest the tempting nature of desire; to reach out and touch something that you know might be dangerous or painful. The rose image suggests at lusting after something that is forbidden, crossing a border to compulsively grasp at it, and the pain being exhilarating. The image of the woman in the water suggests regret after getting too far into a situation that got out of control.

Method:
The fire hands, flame, backgrounds and the pink of the rose were all separate images made with black ink and a sponge. These were scanned and manipulated in Photoshop; some marbled texture was added to the flames, too.