Strange Acquaintances

Juan Peregrino has the words to save us all, being a storyteller is a dangerous job and you have to be willing to risk everything. In this scene, Mr. Peregrino smokes a pipe he lit with the paper on which he wrote a discarded story. Etching, soft ground and drypoint engraving.

Mab, the four-legged dancer, tries to cheer up her troupe companion, she encourages him to drink a tea that will lighten his soul. She has brewed it with love and the assistance of her rat assistant. Ink on paper.

Mab climbs her companion’s trunk to drink tea with his sister Cordelia. This is the climax of their show. The miracle of equilibrium in movement. Ink on paper.

Mab and Cordelia share their bed with an alca, a dodo bird, a black rhinoceros and strange rodents that no longer walk on this world, vanquished by greed and ignorance. For them, they are the best companions, beings that can understand them. Graphite on canvas.

Not even Dr. O´Otho with all his wisdom could help Cordelia with her leg-problem, or should we say, her no-legs problem. She takes it with philosophy. They may be worse things, she has confidants with whom she shares her woes. Graphite and watercolor on canvas.

Mab and Cordelia complement each other very well: Cordelia’s horn music livens Mab like nothing and encourages her to dance, to leap on the irregular street and tap on her two pairs of red shoes. The five-legged elephant gives solemnity to the show. It’s not something you see everyday. Graphite and watercolor on canvas.

Cordelia dreams about all the kinds of legs she could have. She has even considered to have woman’s legs. Ink on paper.

Mab and Cordelia are permanently on tour. They have no rest. It has to be that way until hey master the laws of locomotion. Ink on paper.

Mab tries to give Cordelia back what she inadvertently took while they were in the womb. Cordelia is not sure to take it of not. Graphite on canvas.

Cordelia has a very special voice. She sings on the stage held by two elephants that carry her from one corner of the stage to the other. To keep the illusion of legs, a pair of rats move underneath her, each one inside a black high-heel. Ink on paper.

The Old Bird is an expert in recruiting new members for Mab and Cordelia’s company, from his egg more extinct are born, extinct that can only perform with Mab and Cordelia, because only them still believe in their existence. Ink on paper.

Cordelia’s bathtub contains more than water. There are repressed desires and others that are actively pursued. Ink on paper.

Mab has an elephant inside of her. It takes car of her and protects her because it is secretly in love with her. Graphite and watercolor on canvas.

This businessmen want to convince our elephant to make a suicidal jump. In exchange of what? Mab has no idea but she hopes he doesn’t accept. Ink on paper.

Cordelia, being a legless woman, has in high regard the appendixes of locomotion. That is why she feels it in her soul when someone loses one. A woman loses her leg in an accident and she puts together a memorial to the now separated appendix; a whole procession of people around the city follows the leg in its casket. Cordelia blows her horn: a painful tune of longing comes from it. Ink on paper.

One of Mab’s nightmares in that her inner and outer elephants lose control. That they don’t love her anymore. Ink on paper.

Once, Mab and Cordelia performed for the biggest playboy in the world. A man with a thousand girlfriends but with no relationship. Cordelia nearly fell for him. That would have been the end of the company. Graphite and watercolor on canvas.

Once Cordelia and Mab traveled to a remote country hoping to leave behind their shadows and their tensions. They catched up with them on one lazy morning. Ink on paper.

Neither of us shave our legs, we are like one. Cordelia and Mab. Ink on paper.

During one of the tours, Cordelia witnessed the flight of the dodos. The flew forever to a place where their meat and feathers would be appreciated. A place where they wouldn’t disturb anyone. Ink on paper.

Mab became a bird, little by little. The same happened to Cordelia. She soon had strong bird legs. Inside of a dream. Ink on paper.

Some stories about transfigurations become movies. Mab and Cordelia changed and their story can be seen in this tape that captured the phases of their mutation. It is a story that headless people and birds with a human face like a lot. Ink on paper.

Sometimes sunrise gets stuck and then it lasts a little bit more. This happens because this guys have not yet finished their nocturnal match. Ink on paper.

This people like to absorb and embody stories. That is why they don’t see: they just listen. Ink on paper.

This guys don’t mind doing their art with no safety net. They like the deep black underneath their heads and feet. It inspires them to not commit mistakes. Ink on paper.

A transfigured Mab and her companion made a bet: that no dead fish couldn’t contain life. They lost. Ink on paper.

A platonic couple gives something to drink to their son-head, a son that came out of their ideas. The plain is barren and like them, has not bore material children. Ink on paper.

Even elephants will all their fabulous strength fear the proctologist. And if the doctor is a rat, the fear is worse. Soft ground engraving.

Dodo birds get married too. For love and obligation, like them. Soft ground engraving.

The dodo agent and his rat assistant know how to celebrate and how to forget too. Soft ground engraving.

Cordelia, the legless woman, the disturbing composer. Soft ground engraving.

Mab, the four-legged girl. Unleashed dancer. Soft ground engraving.

The faithful lover of Mab, in his last moments before losing balance, that precious thing. Etching and sugar engraving.

A long queue for this birds that wish to cash their pensions. Bureaucracy exists in all worlds it seems. Soft ground engraving.

This gentlemen pretend to save some endangered species by crossbreeding the remaining birds with others, creating a new species, a variety less susceptible to death. Soft ground engraving.

Sins are carried in different ways, this gentleman’s are a sow that whispers into his ear. Dry point engraving.

This elephant stopped fearing mice after liking spas run by rodents. Etching engraving.

A rat tail’s tea is something that was believed to return Cordelia’s legs. They donated theirs but the tea didn’t work, now they have a wound in common that has bonded them. Etching engraving.

This pair of accountants like each other from a long time. And they have a lot in common also. Dry point etching.

And the romance between the accountants progresses. Chemistry is good. Dry point engraving.

This two gentlemen fit well with each other. They have the same taste in clothes and in tail plumage. Dry point engraving.

A shiny being has under his responsibility the care of the most treasured birds: those that symbolize the soul’s processes. Ink on paper.

This sorcerers pour their magic on a nearly perfect diamond that they shall bury deep beneath the earth’s mantle. This is how they bestow upon mere chance, an impartial judge, the transference of their most precious possession. Ink on paper.

A portal that has no end in its destinations and movements. Its guardians must move with it, for its location has no where or when. Ink on paper.

There are many ways to be born. The unmaterial is born from one head, o from several of them who assist the birth and celebrate it. Ink on paper.

A spiritual way for the souls that go up and down, the nonmaterial individuals crowd and mutter as they travel across this tunnel. Ink on paper.

Two businessmen fight over a magic infused diamond. They want all and at the same time no one wants to spend much. Sometimes treasures end up in hands that don’t deserve them. Ink on paper.