A painting created to submit to Fantagraphics, as an entry to the open illustration call for Beasts! Book Two.

The project details state that the creature depicted must be of cryptozoological origin, or from a mythological source believed to be true. I chose to illustrate Ondine, a water nymph from germanic folklore who desired to gain a mortal soul by marrying a mortal man. She found one, and at their wedding the man took a vow to love Ondine to his last waking breath. Shortly after giving birth to their first child, however, Ondine found her husband in the barn with another woman, whereupon she cursed him by his own words; that is, as he clearly no longer loved Ondine, the husband would only be able to breathe while awake. Upon falling asleep, he would die.

The interesting factoid that pairs with this story is that, medically, the name for the human condition in which one loses autonomic control of one's breathing is now called "Ondine's Curse." Pretty rad.

This is a painting of Ondine remembering the sea while she waits for her husband at a psychedelic well.

acrylic on paper.