Field Notes from the Cultural Apothecary
A festive table in the snow, a red visitor from another world - the bear smiling in wonder.
In the stillness of winter, something arrives that does not belong, and yet feels strangely destined. Color steps into white. Warmth sits across from fur and frost. No words are needed. The moment itself becomes a quiet celebration - of chance, of presence, of a joy that finds its way even into the coldest places.
“Where the Hippo Dreams” follows a creature shaped by southern waters - a being that carries the weight of heat, mud, and river-breath in its skin.
In this painting, the hippo steps toward a world that does not belong to it: a landscape of mountains and open air, entered through an arch of vines heavy with grapes.
The crossing is quiet but meaningful. It reflects what it takes to enter a place where one’s presence is unexpected - a world built on other histories, other climates, other assumptions. The hippo carries its thick skin not only as biology, but as metaphor: protection, memory, resilience.
The work suggests that transformation begins within. A shift of courage, a soft decision, a dream that insists on movement. The gate is more than an architectural form; it is an invitation to reconsider where belonging begins and how far imagination can carry a body across worlds.
Chiribiquete is more than a place - it is a living archive of humanity and nature.
“When the jaguar disappears, the forest forgets how to speak.”
This ancient Amazonian saying whispers through the painting like breath through leaves.
A quiet sentinel walks where shadows breathe and roots remember. This is the Jaguar’s path - wild, sacred, alive. The keeper does not lead but listens, protecting what moves unseen, guiding what must endure.
The work honors the balance between presence and disappearance, voice and silence - the delicate thread that binds all living things when the guardians of the forest begin to fade.
