A Gift for All Patrons

I'd like to make this post available to every Patreon for the rest of this month, as I was not very explicit in the previous post about what this sequence was all about.

I think I've never cried while creating something as I did with 'Recipe for Memories.' I was not looking to feel bad, but to capture something important to me.

A few weeks ago, my family got together to make around 100 hallacas. This is a traditional dish from my country, Venezuela. In a few words, it's made of corn dough filled with meats, olives, and vegetables, wrapped in plantain leaves, and boiled. It's typically prepared during Christmas.

Since building this dish requires a bit of work, like a factory line, each family member is in charge of a different step in the hallaca-making process. Often, the elder takes charge and teaches the younger generation how to approach this tradition.

My mother is currently one of the older ones, and during our last meeting, she mentioned how things used to be back in her days when my grandfather was alive. I noticed a certain nostalgia and sadness in her words, mostly because he died during Christmas. However, the spark for making an illustration about it was not quite there yet.

A few days later, a friend of mine, joking about the traditional gathering, mentioned that the dish was not properly made because, back in his day, his grandmother used to smoke while preparing the corn dough, along with all kinds of not-so-clean steps. According to him, this was what made the flavor really good. We both laughed, and then I thought this could make an interesting sequence—something fun and relatable about Christmas, where a very elderly character is cooking in unconventional ways.

I don't know why, but at some point in the thought process, the tragedy of death and the beauty of tradition felt more important than the jokes. I knew because, after a few strokes, I felt a hit deep in my gut: the pain. I chose to follow it and see what came after. Nevertheless, I did not want people to cry or feel bad. I don't think people need that; life is already tough. My intention was to highlight that people will go, but the lessons they teach us stay with us, along with the memories we hold of them, and these can be passed through generations. So, in a metaphorical way, they "stay" with us.

Now, these ideas were not clear from the beginning. I struggled to put together my feelings and what exactly I could say. Through the drawing exploration, I managed to see what subjects would be understandable for the audience and what would be wise to share. Sometimes the process itself tells you the way—a paradox (I might make art about this later).

I don't think tragedy and pain are good; no one wants to be hurt. But that does not mean they are not useful. They give you a certain knowledge about aspects you can see in others' experiences but not fully understand. And I don't know to what degree that is bad. I don't think an artist must seek these kinds of experiences, but I think we all might have something burning inside us to share. Relating through art is something good and sometimes useful for both the artist and the viewer, as a way to express something shapeless.

People keep asking me if I'm okay. I think I am. I guess I'm just more honest about difficult feelings I've always experienced, which can be misunderstood as being in a bad place. Are we not in bad places from time to time? That's life. In my opinion, it's all about "time." If you are in a "bad place" for too long, that might be a reason to worry. Personally, I go into bad places on a weekly basis, whatever that means, but even on those same days, I can feel the beauty of being alive, just in a simple blue sky or the smile of someone I love.

Anyway, I hope you find this process useful! And don't forget to check the PSD file.

Process Video: https://youtu.be/snAS1r19yK8

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