A giant red dressed woman is embracing a pelican. They both look at you.
The bird is a bit scared, she is serious. They fit with difficulty a dark narrow place similar to a box, closed up by two red belts or braces that contain windows. Her foot is outside and the wings of the pelican come out on the belt, he is bigger that the place. The pelican has strange white light coming from the head, as abyss fishes, and this light makes the place green. Some wind is blowing from left.
"I thought to the symbolism of the mother pelican feeding her baby pelicans, a old legend which said that in times of famine, the mother pelican wounded herself, striking her breast with the beak in order to feed her young with her own blood to prevent starvation. There is another version of the
legend that says that the mother fed her dying young with her blood to revive them from death, but in turn lost her own life. That’s why the pelican became soon a sign of abnegation, charity and resurrection (often a precise reference to Christ and to salvation).
I didn’t want to think to the war in Vukovar therefore that idea occurred (I thought to Hamlet too) and the action of taking care of the others in dramatic moments became the most important part of the painting.
My pelican hasn’t babies around to feed or to save. It is alone now but it is protected by the woman that is a surreal personification who saves the bird.
She takes care of who by definition is the self-denial symbol. That means preserve peace.
The light on the pelican for most of people belongs to a hideous creature of the dark abyss. On the
bird it look like something strange and make it a fantastic character who doesn’t exist on the heart.
In abyssal fishes the lights is to attract prey. On the pelican is the way to introduce light in the dark box and to create a feelings between the bird and the woman, and to show us what is inside.
Something scary seems to be also in the place but they are stronger if they are connected. ': shares the artist