Illustration for Mikhail Stelmakh's book 'In the Hedgehog's Windmill' 1956

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this illustration for Mikhail Stelmakh's book 'In the Hedgehog's Windmill' using ink. Look at all the hatched marks swirling through the trees! It's like Havrylenko’s pen had a mind of its own, dancing across the page to evoke all the different textures in this forest scene: the delicate stems, the rough bark. I imagine him drawing in a frenzy of controlled energy, lost in the story. And I wonder about Havrylenko, what was he thinking as he captured these children foraging? Did he see himself in them? The way he uses line to create a sense of depth and movement makes me think of other illustrators like Maurice Sendak, who knew how to create these evocative worlds. These artists are always in conversation across time, inspiring each other, it’s all one big exchange of ideas. This drawing is a form of embodied expression that invites us to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.