![\"\"](\"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/CoverIssue17Kindle.jpg\" "\\"CoverIssue17Kindle\\"")
<\/a>Something Wicked Issue 17 Illustrated by Vianne Venter<\/p><\/div>\n
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How long have you been painting?<\/em><\/strong> How did you come up with this piece?<\/em><\/strong> On the original image there is an inscription, which is not visible in this version, that reads, \u201csomething to hold on to, dear Lord, in this world aflame, this world adrift\u201d.<\/p>\n Joe has always loved this piece, so when he decided that come-hell-or-high-water he was going to use it for this cover, I attempted an overlay layer of butterfly images at short notice, though in the end we decided to go without it.<\/p>\n The original image is acrylic ink on board.<\/p>\n You are actually Something Wicked\u2019s fiction editor, but over the years you have occasionally illustrated stories. Which do you prefer doing, editing or painting?<\/em><\/strong> What\u2019s your favourite medium to work in?<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n
\nI have a drawing I did when I was four which looks remarkably similar to stuff I was working on last week, but in seriousness, since High School.<\/p>\n
\nThe original image of the figure in the abyss was painted in early 2000 when I had just moved to Cape Town, from Johannesburg. At the time runaway fires were burning on the mountains, so much so that the air was full of ash. It was a very emotive piece about my own feelings of displacement and drifting.<\/p>\n
\nOoh, they are functions of such completely different parts of my brain. I tend to go through word phases or image phases. The last seven years have very much been about words, but the pictures are coming back.<\/p>\n
\nInk, whether pen or acrylic. I suppose it\u2019s about the density of the pigment. It demands quite a definite line, but the flow of the ink is very conducive to the graphic style that I often favour.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\t\t