This is one of Marcel's more colorful creations, and with this deliciously deadly theme, that makes the painting oh-so-much-more disturbing.
***Before you continue reading, make sure you click on the photo of the painting to enlarge it and take a closer look - you don't want to miss the little details.***
A flood, or tidal wave, of bright blue water is sweeping people off of a hued cliff, straight into the sticky grips of giant, flesh-eating plants. At first, it's hard for me to think of this scene as a tragedy. The bright, rainbow colors of the plants and the tiny stick-figures somehow make me think of gummy bears....yum! The whole painting is like a person, with the water as a hand, tossing a handful of treats into the mouth (plants).
Sure, there are people stuck to giant plants, but the colors make me think of innocent childhood toys - like yellow rubber duckies - and my fear is forgotten.
Then I take a closer look at the bottom of the painting and I get a little nauseous when I notice the blood. Some of the falling people missed the plants to land skewered on ominous black stakes protruding from the ground...no colors here, except for the blood that lets you know they really are dead.
When I look up at the plants again, the red looks suspiciously like blood. The thought that that red is not a part of the plant - but is actually blood streaming from the people stuck in the plants - chases away any illusions of lollipops and cotton candy I may have had. I had thought these people had a chance to escape still, and that if there are man-eating plants, they would work slowly - because they have no teeth, you see, only digestive juices. The suddenness of the realization that this might not be the case gives me the creeps, but then I notice that there are people hanging from the flower, stuck to the red - so it is a part of the flower, and not a shower of blood. Whew!! What a roller coaster ride.
As an afterthought I realize that of course the red is the flower: A flesh-eating plant wouldn't let all that blood go to waste - it would want to collect it and drink it down.
TIME OUT FOR A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: There are many plants in the world that eat meat. Most are found in wet areas, where water carries away many of the nutrients plants need to grow, so they have adapted to find other ways to get their minerals. But don't worry, none of them are big enough to eat you. Actually, you are way more dangerous to carnivorous plants than they are to you. Wetland areas (which also act as natural water filters) are quickly being destroyed by human development, and the popularity of some of these plants means that the species have been decimated to answer to that demand.
In Man Eater we see water and plants working together to defeat a common enemy.
Hmm, maybe the painting should have been titled 'Revenge of the Wetlands'.
...or possibly 'Candyland Mountain'...?!
If you have any better ideas, let me know.
Also, we've got a special treat today, a word from Marcel himself. He requested I make the following addition to the description of Into The Void in the last post:
"The winged entities are also suffering, for they were meant to be together but can't (much like in the movie HANCOCK). They are blind so they can't see each other; they have grown talons so they can't touch each other; and their vocal chords produce nothing but gurgles and screeches. Enraged by their unfulfilled love, they take it out on the un-demonized souls. :)"
...in case you were wondering.
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