Illustration for Sidgrani's poem Gestrandet (Stranded) as part of the SternenBlick anthology, Zwischen den Wolken (Between the Clouds) (Mattner, 2016)

Mixed media. November 2015.

Sidgrani's poem Gestrandet (Stranded) contains a stern warning message to us all, not to let time slip away without fulfilling our dreams. The idea of time being like sand that is blown away in the wind captured my imagination, as it also links poignantly with ecological themes of erosion and Nature's fragile balance. I chose therefore the image of a broken hourglass, from which the sands of time are seen escaping. This is reinforced by the ghost-like outline of a dandelion clock, symbolising ephemerality: the shapes of the seeds separating from the stem of the plant superimposed on the hourglass suggest the fractured lines of broken glass. But the poem also hints at the hope of regeneration. Hence, in my illustration, I include a seedling that sprouts from amidst the sands, helping to hold them together and stopping them flowing away completely. From the ghost of the dandelion clock there also springs a butterfly, symbol of rebirth and transformation.