The Imagined Word is an exhibition of 22 drawings made on Stonehenge paper in Kraft color (Cotton paper, acid free), and drybrush. Some of the drawings combine the drybrush technique with the impression of a wooden block, used to imprint textiles in India with xilography ink as seen in the geometric patterns in some of the compositions.
Characters from different literary sources are the protagonists of these drawings, depicted with two different methods:
During the first drawings the characters start to emerge in the middle of the drawing process, as the artist explains:
“I didn't choose the characters, they chose me. The figures are emerging in the middle of the drawing process. While I’m drawing the figure, he or she reminds me of a book, a text, a passage or a myth and then I associate and name the figure.” This aspect recalls the writer’s exercise creating a character while the story is being constructed.
As the idea of an exhibition matures, the drawings were created with the reverse method. The characters start to be conceived as Rafael Trelles recalls his memory looking for different texts or associating different characters from different sources.
These 22 drawings, while being exhibited, are accompanied by a quote. The quote was selected after the image was completed and it collects the essence of the character depicted in the drawing.
As a result, the viewer looks at the image, then reads the text, and starts remembering the story and the character. If the viewer is not aware of the literary work, while looking at the image and reading the text, he/she will get intrigued and probably will start reading the book, always remembering the character met at the exhibition.
