Why did I suddenly have the inkling to paint Luna...and the squid? I was composing my business card, and I knew it needed to portray my strengths in painting, which is the human face. And it needed to be an *attractive* and whimiscal and beautiful human face, because I don't want to scare away potential clients with my portrayal of dark, moody characters. They might think *I* am a dark, moody character...which might not be so good for business.

I actually wanted to design my business card so that it looked like a book cover. I am fascinated by book cover design, because of the way it integrates a large centralized visual picture, with typography that fits it (for the book title, author name, etc). And while we are all told we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, frankly, we do. We're all visual creatures. And I wanted to apply that same logic to my business card.

Anyway, I was looking through archives of notable book covers, and I saw one particular cover that really captured my attention, the cover for Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. It features the face of a child, with wide blue eyes, looking towards the upper right. It is absolutely stunning. I had also pulled a Rococo-inspired photograph of a woman, and I'm not quite sure when "big blue eyes" and Rococo-female translated into Luna in my head...but I think it might have been some time after I started painting.

At some point, I was thinking: why is the blond, blue-eyed girl looking over her shoulder with a slightly mischievous and innocent-looking smile? What is she looking at? At the same time, I thought the painting was missing something, and I was entertaining all sorts of ideas, but I was mostly thinking in terms of contrasts. Beauty and the beast. Perfection and the grotesque. Light and dark. At some point, I was thinking of adding in part of a machine, but I hate painting metal, so that kind of went out the window.

I don't know when the idea came to me, but when the idea of a reaching squid tentacle came to me, it was so obvious and immediate to me that this innocent, slightly mischevious-looking girl-woman *must* be Luna.

It was just one of those perfect moments of utter clarity, the kind that excites me with its simplicity yet complicated perfection. Luna is the ONLY blond, blue-eyed female I can think of who will look absolutely naive and curious and almost otherworldly, with a tentacle reaching towards her chin. It also *works* because there IS a giant squid in Harry Potter fandom. And it also works because she is almost certainly going to seek out creatures and entertain their attentions without the least inhibition. AND, because Luna and the Squid makes sense canonically...it is probably the ONLY time I can get away with putting a girl and a squid together in one painting without it being interpreted as wholly perverted (*ahem*Japanese tentacle porn*ahem*). Of course, it can still be interpreted that way.

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Sold for $250 at the Azkatraz charity auction in July 2009!

Only a few more limited edition 11x14" prints are still available! Please email me at foxestacado@gmail.com to inquire about pricing.