The Anthill

November 2024

I started this piece during my first year at Sint Joost Illustrated and Animated Storytelling program. The assignment was to make two works based off of an illustration of a scene from a short story. I had chosen the story ‘The Way Up to Heaven’ by Roald Dahl. You can read a little bit about the story and find my illustration here! To get ideas for the two works based on that illustration, I wrote down all of the things that I notice about it, visually and metaphorically. The main feeling I used in that piece was contrast and the spectrum between red and blue, cold and warm, dead and alive to name a few. So using those keywords I started this work. It is called The Anthill, because I was inspired by the system ant colonies use when an ant is disabled or not contributing to the colony properly. They shun them to a kind of graveyard blocked off deep in the anthill. It reminded me of the human world and how many people treat each other when they view them as not valuable for their own profit. Therefor I created an anthill where people are aimlessly searching a labyrinth for ‘The Answer’. But when they see someone else who is lost further down, instead of helping or joining together to search, they ignore them. Thinking that the effort they would need to use to help someone else is better used looking for their own happiness.

After finalizing the sketch I bought cotton muslin at the fabric market and used quilting fabric I had to sew the pieces of the sun. Then, I painted the ombré with acrylics from a warm yellow all the way down to a deep blue the further away from the surface and life you get. Lastly I cut out and hand sewed on the brown fabric for the tunnels. Now I have to embroider the people and some more details, then attach it to a pole to be able to hang it up.