Tarantula Woman Book Cover...
Read a snippet from
Tarantula Woman by Donald O'Donovan
by Open Books
Publication date: February 28, 2011
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"Ysela had a tatoo-a tarantula-on her left shoulder blade. When I first saw Ysela's tattoo, the past came rushing back-my childhood. As a child I adored spiders. At the age of eight, I devoured Jean-Henri Fabre's Life of Spider, and subsequently, a biography of Jean-Henri Fabre himself. I was fascinated by the sparkling portrait of a serene old man, radiantly alive, sitting in his garden in Provence contemplating nature. I was the same sort of being, contemplative, precocious, prematurely old. Then I was catapulted into the world. The result was disaster. The precocious, contemplative child-sage showed little aptitude for marching in step, firing point-blank, lobbing grenades, reading a compass, driving a semi, teaching remedial English, selling refrigerators, hawking chocolate pies, writing software-user manuals, bouncing drunks, repairing roller skates, decorating cakes, embalming corpses, throwing pizzas, hanging sheet rock, cleaning swimming pools, performing bladder irrigations, picking grapes, pumping gas, and working ineffectually at over two hundred other occupations. A failure! A flop. A misfit, a dreamer, a dud, a displaced person.
Then I met Ysela and I remembered..." |
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I love the idea that this painting could be used as a cover for this book by Donald O'Donovan. It makes me realize that everyone interprets a painting in their own way, and that this painting resonated with the publisher and author of this book. It struck a cord that made sense to them. This is a point that I discussed in my Painting Blog - Interpretation and Style.
The original painting which I called India was inspired by a photograph by Deviant Art photographer Anna who calls herself Subterfuge Malaises. I wonder what her thoughts were when she took the photo that inspired my reference....
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