Hortensia und Groß=Keiser Tritten von Seelen=Wald, im Hortensia=Zorn 1917

Adolf Wölfli made this drawing, Hortensia und Groß=Keiser Tritten von Seelen=Wald, im Hortensia=Zorn, with colored pencils, a medium that invites detailed, obsessive mark-making. I love the way he fills every bit of space, creating this dense tapestry of color and form. The texture here is fascinating; it's flat but so incredibly layered. Notice how the colors don’t blend but sit next to each other, vibrating. The drawing has this hypnotic quality, pulling you into its intricate world. Look at the figure at the bottom, writhing in what I guess is Hortensia’s wrath. The yellow and green create this sickly, unsettling feeling, which is amplified by the frenetic scribbles of text hovering above. Wölfli's work reminds me a bit of the visionary art of someone like Hilma af Klint, who also created these intensely personal and symbolic worlds. Both artists show us how art can be a way of mapping internal landscapes, embracing the ambiguous and strange.