Illustration
The bewitching illustrations of Lhunatica
Who is Lhunatica?
Lhunatica is a Venezuelan illustrator based in France. She arrived in France as a political refugee, seeking safety and life-changing experiences. Thanks to her career, she knew how to reinvent herself a new path towards artistic expression.
The Peonia Series
Inspired by the artists of decadence and symbolism, this collection of digital paintings guides us through the myth of a majestic nymph called Paeonia, whose beauty was so overwhelming that she caught the eye of the god Apollo.
As the story progressed, Apollo looked at her and her cheeks turned red, and for the moment their eyes met, they belonged to each no longer. But this love story has an abrupt end, because the Gods are as powerful as they are cruel.
The fleeting moment between Paeonia and Apollo ended in terrible tragedy. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, filled with rage and jealousy watched the love scene between the Nyphme and the God with pure hatred. In a moment of chaos and overwhelming feelings, she cursed the Nymph Paeonia and transformed her into the flower we all know as Peony.
The legend says that peonies are red because of the blush on Nymph's cheeks when Apollo and she looked into each other's eyes.
Each work represents a micro moment of this short love story fixed forever in time and in each painting are coded secrets about this nymph and her last moments of existence as a conscious being.
« But if you love and need to have desires, let these be your desires: to melt and be like a running stream that sings its melody to the night. Know the pain of too much tenderness. Being hurt by your own understanding of love; And bleed gladly and happily » Khalil Gibran Khalil
Not knowing that she was cursed by Aphrodite, the nymph accepted her transformation as it was a blessing to become something beautiful like a flower, and for the last time we see the innocence and beauty in her gaze.
“How happy is the fate of the irreproachable vestal!
The forgetting world, by the forgotten world.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Every prayer accepted, and every wish resigned”
alexander pope
In this work, Paeonia can be seen metamorphosing and shading a tear of pain. Aphrodite, meanwhile, watches Paeonia's transformation, waiting for her to no longer be herself. She is represented by a dove, one of the symbols most frequently attributed to the goddess of love who is ironically heartless.
“Love and hate are not blind, but are blinded by the fire they themselves carry with them. » Nietzsche
Paeonia's last moment of consciousness, a moment of surreal beauty. The cursed Nymph has become a flower that will forever be the symbol of her story and her intact innocence. A sublime reminder of its mere existence.
“The sweet bonds of love are indifferent to life and death. They go through time so that yesterday's love is part of today's love and so that confidence in tomorrow's love is also part of today's love. And when one dies, the memory lives in the other, it is warm and breathes. And when both die – I almost believe, rationalist as I am – he remains somewhere, indestructible and eternal, enriching the whole universe by the simple fact that he existed. »
Isaac Asimov
The first encounter between Apollo and Paeonia. Apollo depicted as a swan gently hugging the beautiful nymph in an "endless" moment that turned out to be drastically short.
“Everything we see or seem to be is just a dream within a dream. » Poe
The series “The hidden things” by Lhunatica
Monster, demons, ghosts… The stories we tell come from our deepest and scariest thoughts. Aren't all these fantastic yet disturbing stories just lies that hide a deeper truth?
Hidden Things is a collection of artwork inspired by the darkest feelings we experience in life, feelings we try to hide behind incoherent fantasies and lies.
Lhumatica tries to express through her works her most emotional and empathetic side, because for her the beauty of art lies in the connection we establish through it. This means that while these paintings elicited an emotional reaction in you, the empathic connection it created and you the artist and the rest of the viewers is now in the presence of a collective feeling.
Gashadokuro, also known as Ōdokuro, are mythical creatures from Japanese mythology. They are skeletal giants that roam the countryside in the darkest hours of the night. If they come across a human late on the roads, the gashadokuro will silently creep up and grab their victims, crushing them in their hands or biting their heads off. I felt the legend of Gashadokuro was a great metaphor for our inner selves. Because isn't that our greatest enemy? Our greatest sabotage comes from ourselves, from our inner thoughts, which silently creep in and catch up with us, just like the legend of this monstrous Yokai. What lies inside of us is what we have reflected upon, neglecting our inner selves, that is the true source of all pain. Is not it? Lhunatica
The feeling of being slowly absorbed by our Yokais. My Yokai and I is a digital artwork that reflects the emotion of being consumed by dark thoughts such as loneliness, depression, and grief. The Yokai surrounding the main character seem to grow around her as she slowly becomes absorbed in this demonic parade. Her facial expression does not hide the pain and even in the struggle she seems to have accepted her fate. Maybe the answer is not to fight the Yokai but to befriend them?
What are ghosts and demons if not a simple manifestation of our fears, fears that we cannot understand but which follow us in our daily life, fears of our thoughts, of what people think of us, of how we should be, from the feelings that are chasing us… the fear of who we are and what we will become, from the fears that have turned into anguish, anxiety and depression. Aren't all these things the real truth behind ghost stories? So here we have a manifestation of our darkest thoughts in the form of Yōkai. Our own emotions conveniently fade away and become just another scare story, just another fantasy demon.
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