Varya Iashchenko | Norway
A little donkey was full of life until the moment when he got too scared. His fear turned into a troll sitting on the donkey’s neck and making him always sleepy. A long time passed, the troll was there and just the donkey was unhappy. When autumn came, the smell of the ripe fruit attracted the donkey but he was too fearful and sleepy. In despair he brayed and the gardener-wizard heard his cry and came to ask what had happened and what she could do. She turned the troll into seeds of wonderful flowers and the donkey woke up to life again.
This story is about the nature of fear. It tells how fears grow from the inside and spoil one’s life. There are many things which depend on our own desires and intentions but sometimes we still need someone’s help and it’s normal to ask for it. The story line goes between the dream and reality, making one not possible without the other. I wanted to do a story sounding a bit like an old fairytale and showing the inner workings of the mind. I wanted it to look like a tapestry, soft and full of flowers, using the limited and calm palette.
The book was originally started at the workshop of Jesús Cisneros, in a beautiful location of Gerswalde in Germany, in a place called – der Großer Garten - a big garden. I have chosen three characters, a donkey, a guardian and a giant and created four spreads and a storyline about a sleeping donkey, who couldn’t wake up without help. But the characters transformed in the process of drawing - a male guardian into a female gardener, the giant into a troll and the sleeping donkey transformed into a scared donkey.