Communication Arts 2025 illustration award, annual nº66
Applied Arts 2025 Illustration Award
3x3 illustration awards, annual 22 — Merit award
This artwork was created as a personal exploration of the themes of home and travel, during a period when I had left my country to live abroad, with no clear idea of when—or if—I would return.
The central figure can be described as a hybrid of a woman and a deer, a reference to the fauna of my home country, Canada. The human face may be read as a self-portrait or, more broadly, as a potential mirror for anyone seeking to identify with this surreal figure wandering through a maze.
The surrounding garden represents a romanticized version of the European landscapes I was visiting at the time. Entering a foreign place often brings about a good amount of idealization: one sees only its beauty, while ignoring the reality that no land is flawless or capable of fulfilling the idea of a perfect refuge. To suggest this tension, I aimed to embed a vague sense of unease within the idyllic setting. The central figure, though enveloped by a lush and fertile environment, remains lost and unsettled.
Symbols referring to the goddess Artemis appear subtly across the work — such as the crescent moon and hunting dogs on the fountain, linking it to earlier pieces I created during the same period (here and here). Her presence reinforces the dualities at play: hunter and hunted, civilization and wilderness, the known and the unknown.
Fundamentally, the work reflects the desire for belonging and the disorientation of exile, as well as the complexity of searching for home in an unfamiliar place.
First sketch —
