This was my entry for the Jacek Yerca "Surreal" contest. I didn't win anything but i sure had a lot of fun learning from this amazing artist. It kind of opened a door to new possibilities for me artistically.

I really wanted to enter Yerca's world so i took a lot of time studying him and is paintings. Once i felt i was connecting with his work and understood it, i really took my time developing concepts that would reflect my own way of seeing the world and use the "feeling" of his paintings has inspiration.

"Life is a Ride" is a sort of metaphor for the way i see human beings. We are bound to follow a path or rules that are already laid out for us. We limit ourselves which disables us from really seeing the whole picture. Our body can only absorb so much information, but unfortunately it seems that most of us don't even try to "look outside the window" or "open the door to see". We lock ourselves in. Its way easier to just follow the path blindly. We must free ourselves from theses illusions to witness the true beauty of our universe and see how lucky we are to be a part of it... i think.

In my image we can see that no one is there so i guess we can imagine that the person that was once there has left the "ride" (maybe using the trap door on the floor). It could also be a metaphor for Death... but i better not start on that. I'll leave some for the imagination.

I have to confess i was not completely satisfied with the end result. There is a lot of things i wanted to add and rework but could'nt due to lack of time. But then again, Its the ride, not the destination that's important. ... At least from my point of view.

I will end with this quote from the stand up comic Bill Hicks (which inspired me a lot):

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride."


Thank you for reading

Vero