Illustration

Seasons of Winter

Winter Darbey

Exhibition

See it On Campus: Level 2

Visitor Info

a surreal skytrain journey through imagination and growth

1) From the cavern of monsters the train emerges, upside-down, struggling to emerge from one devouring mouth …only to be greeted by another. This is the origin and the end, the void outside of the world that waits before birth and after death. Terrible things live here.

This panel represents childhood, and the struggle to survive it.

Element: Fire

The train acts as a helicase enzyme, unzipping the DNA so that it can be transcribed. A tRNA complex pops amino acids onto a chain like beads, as it travels along the unwound strand. The chain of amino acids will fold to become a protein, maybe even a binder protein like the ones holding the unwound DNA strand apart behind the train.

This panel represents learning. The joy of diving into the knowledge that had been kept from me. Figuring out the systems of academia and finding that I did well at it. The brand-new perspective brought by studying the ‘–ologys’ and seeing the beautiful complexities of the world from many angles.

Element: Water

3) The train skims over a scaffolding of new leaves, all pushing out of the ground. Energy travels between the leaves and the roots and the soil. Bright sparks like stars wink in the energy exchange in the layers of soil. Tiny creatures — a snail, a beetle, a ladybug — crouch under the leaves. A bumblebee passes by on its way to fertilize the fields of flowers in the background.

This panel represents farm labour, and being connected to the earth. Gaining strength, building up savings, and gaining a sense of how my own time compares to the moon and plants and soil and all the cycles of life and death that envelop me when I am immersed in green growth. Element: Earth.

The train zips along a clockwork scaffold. The sun gleams out from under the cloud of a just-finished rainfall. Other trains curve and zoom along their path, and sunlight gleams off the tracks. The buildings reflect the blue and grey and gold, with bright reflections of each other on the sea of windows. Flowering trees peek in at the edges, and a stray sprout unfurls under the arch of a skytrain bridge. The ground is a calm flood of water, but high walkways between the buildings are full of people.

This panel represents the future, and the city.

Open sky and water. Storm or sun may await. The sun gleams under a lifting cloud and sets the city, all the blue and gold and grey reflecting and winking, into a fire of possibility.

Element: Air

5) The sun at the centre.
This panel represents the changing yet constant ‘self’ that all these life events pivot around. This is the spark of energy that holds everything together.

Element: Essence

special thanks to my teacher Hyein Lee for giving me the support & the space to bring this one to life, and special thanks to Sharon Bailey at the Stretchers & Surfaces woodshop!

Winter’s Weirdlands

the train doesn’t stop here! check out my Fall semester project. this train journey gets even weirder.

now that’s a wild commute!
this book was (loosely) based on the poem ‘Pursuit’ by Stephen Dobyns.

special thanks to my teachers Robin Mitchell-Cranfield and Jim Holyoak for the wonderful feedback and ‘yes, and’ and resources they provided to help bring this one to life!

and a huge shout out to Jeremy Tankard, Amory Abbot, and Vjeko Sager, for their guidance and support over the course of my illustration degree!!

and a special thank you to Sharon Bailey of the Stretchers & Surfaces wood shop, for her dedication to maintaining an excellent resource and working space.