Crop:
Full image:
The mousedeer, also called the chevrotain, is a tiny, dainty, nervous little forest animal from south-east Asia. There are two species. The greater mousedeer is only 30cm at the shoulder, whilst the lesser is an absolute midget at just 20cm tall. I have had the good fortune to see one in Thailand and it really is a heart-grabber but they have good reason to be nervous as their forest homes contain a good number of animals who would enjoy a mousedeer snack.
I am not sure which of the two species it is that occupies a corner of this artwork, carefully picking its way down to take a drink. A very abstract landscape that almost doesn't look like a landscape at all and certainly not the forest world that mousedeer usually occupy. But maybe that is why it is being so cautious, caught out in the open where it has been driven by thirst...or perhaps it had nowhere else to go.
Perhaps the point here, more than with most of my artwork, is about our degradation of the natural world. The background is a photograph of weathered flaky paintwork on an old corrugated metal fence, which happens to be one of my favourite features of our local town and can be seen in a photograph below. So I have used nature's degradation of our urban world to depict our impact on the natural world especially an animal that looks so vulnerable.
But let's not over-analyse things. It's a magical world of texture and colour inhabited by a wonderful beast. Both are natural creations that I just merged into an artwork.
It is a shame that viewing on-line does not really allow you to explore the depth of detail to be found in such weathered objects. This enlarged detail gives an idea of the range of colours and tones and the finery of all that cracking. Such subtlety in something so rough and overlooked. I absolutely encourage you to find your own weathered urban surfaces and get up close, reeeeal close.
And here is the original photograph without the mousedeer and in its original orientation.
This particular little mousedeer was living in the 5th panel from the right of this fence.
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