INVISIBLE CITIES: Sophronia

The 22nd of Calvino's Invisible Cities and my eighth illustration for the project, the dual city known as Sophronia. You can see the entire series so far, along with amazing work from my fellow travelers Leighton Connor and Joe Kuth, at our group art tumblr Seeing Calvino, which is updated every Wednesday with new art.

"The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities. In one there is the great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the death-ride with crouching motorcyclists, the big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the middle. The other half-city is of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest. One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is temporary, and when the period of its sojourn is over, they uproot it, dismantle it, and take it off, transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half city."

10 inches by 8 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 27, 2014

INVISIBLE CITIES: Chloe

The nineteenth of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and my seventh illustration for the project, the city named Chloe. This was by far the most difficult piece to complete so far, but I am pleased with the final image. You can see the entire series so far, which includes works from my fellow travelers Leighton Connor and Joe Kuth, at our shared tumblr Seeing Calvino which is updated every Wednesday with a new City.

"A voluptuous vibration constantly stirs Chloe, the most chaste of cities. If men and women began to live their ephemeral dreams, every phantom would become a person with whom to begin a story of pursuits, pretenses, misunderstandings, clashes, oppressions, and the carousel of fantasies would stop."

10 inches by 8 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 5, 2014