The Scent of Oranges
Cartoonists tend to diminish their work, "Oh, it is a negative art form, I am always looking for the wrong side of things", as if it is a truism of cartooning. The negativity statement is certainly an old one and difficult to get rid off seeing that on the surface, bad things does get exposed on the picture plane.
But.
Cartooning exercises critical analysis in which negativity has no real home, or to be specific: Pre-determined pros and cons belong to the category of propaganda.
Let us instead tell a tale. A tale of immortal love, even when all hope seems lost.
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| Sara Qaed, The Scent of Oranges... Morning, October 27, 2017. |
Please click on the photo to see the detailing, just as it is meant to be seen from right to left. The latter is of no big consequence, though, since the two belong together in unison.
Sara Qaed has drawn a longing so intense that its impossibility makes it possible from beyond the prison bars. His beloved believing him dead is living in poverty and hunger, their children clinging to her. Just then, while looking at the ribbon of mourning on his portrait, his calling reaches her.
This should be written in the language of poetry, and yet there is no need. It is already here before us.
The mental bond crossing boundaries taking on physical existence, while the scent of oranges speaks of his pain. A soul of this strength can only be of the right sort. With this we are back at critical cartooning at its core, portraying the abuse of power incarcerating what power fears the most. He may not need a ribbon of mourning, but he is still behind vertical bars.
Yet, he is not... with which the circle remains unbroken, proving that within the grand tales on life, cartooning is to be found.
