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THU DIC 25 2025
during these last few days of 2025 i had begun to read the book "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer
i think it contributed to keep my spirits up during these last days of the year, which i personally tend to find gloomy and stressful
one specific chapter of the book had such an impact on me, that i just had to draw this from it.
In the book, the main character is a biologist, who is exploring a strange environmental anomaly called "Area X", which does... strange things. If you've seen the movie, you get an idea, but the book really describes some quite strange happenings that dont show up in the movie
During that short chapter, she talks about something called a "loadstone", essentially, the experience in her life which inclined her to become a biologist in the first place.
She describes how, when living in a rented house with her parents in her youth, there was a pool there which was never maintained, and so, became overgrown and full of wildlife and critters, which she would sit an observe for hours, watching it all just live and be.
Categorize the animals, follow their behaviors, distinguish them from one another, preserve and encourage the environment to flourish.
All of these thoughts, these little minutea of such a small enclosed space, an overgrown pool, completely fascinated and captivated me, as these kinds of things never enter my thoughts on their own, as i am occupied generally with entirely different things.
It stuck with me, especially, given the conclusion to that chapter, and how heartbreaking it felt to me.
She mentions that eventually, they were not able to pay the rent in that house anymore, and had to move into a small stuffed apartment. One of the closing remarks of this chapter especially had an effect on me:
Quote
"One of the great traumas of my life was worrying about that pool. Would the new owners see the beauty and the importance of leaving it as is, or would they destroy it, create unthinking slaughter in honor of the pool's real function?"
So, i drew a re-interpretation of the chapter, having donkey sitting at the overgrown pool, watching it, observing the wonders of life thriving in human-made environments meant for other things.
during these last few days of 2025 i had begun to read the book "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer
i think it contributed to keep my spirits up during these last days of the year, which i personally tend to find gloomy and stressful
one specific chapter of the book had such an impact on me, that i just had to draw this from it.
In the book, the main character is a biologist, who is exploring a strange environmental anomaly called "Area X", which does... strange things. If you've seen the movie, you get an idea, but the book really describes some quite strange happenings that dont show up in the movie
During that short chapter, she talks about something called a "loadstone", essentially, the experience in her life which inclined her to become a biologist in the first place.
She describes how, when living in a rented house with her parents in her youth, there was a pool there which was never maintained, and so, became overgrown and full of wildlife and critters, which she would sit an observe for hours, watching it all just live and be.
Categorize the animals, follow their behaviors, distinguish them from one another, preserve and encourage the environment to flourish.
All of these thoughts, these little minutea of such a small enclosed space, an overgrown pool, completely fascinated and captivated me, as these kinds of things never enter my thoughts on their own, as i am occupied generally with entirely different things.
It stuck with me, especially, given the conclusion to that chapter, and how heartbreaking it felt to me.
She mentions that eventually, they were not able to pay the rent in that house anymore, and had to move into a small stuffed apartment. One of the closing remarks of this chapter especially had an effect on me:
Quote
"One of the great traumas of my life was worrying about that pool. Would the new owners see the beauty and the importance of leaving it as is, or would they destroy it, create unthinking slaughter in honor of the pool's real function?"
So, i drew a re-interpretation of the chapter, having donkey sitting at the overgrown pool, watching it, observing the wonders of life thriving in human-made environments meant for other things.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1855 x 1986px
File Size 1.01 MB
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