#35: El Pato (The Duck) 2008

Marina Pallares made this piece, #35: El Pato, with what looks like simple tools but holds a whole universe. The black and white are so stark, like a woodcut maybe, or a linocut. It's raw and immediate, you know? The surface is alive, the white lines so confident as they become ducks and swirls and strange bottles. What strikes me most is how the ripples around the duck almost seem to echo the concentric circles above. It’s like Pallares is playing with our sense of depth, blurring the foreground and background, making the whole image vibrate. This reminds me a little of the work of Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, who also knew how to pack a punch with simple graphic means, and make very poetic images, but of course Pallares has her own distinct voice, creating a dreamlike space. This piece invites us to get lost in its world of imagination, where ducks float in skies filled with stars, circles, and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of magic.