Illustrations That Will Make You Long For Those Sweet And Simpler Days

Every once in a while, there comes an artist whose work evokes feelings of longing that somehow soothe our minds in the process. Ivy Berces is one of those artists. The following is a piece of fiction inspired on the work she presents on her blog Prinsomnia.

(Fiction)

When I wander through the woods, I feel like the forest can hear the voice in my mind. The sway of the branches and twigs makes me think that they are listening to the ache I feel in the stomach when I think about my past. Their graceful dance somehow appeases me. Perhaps, as humans in a society that values hoarding and deems greed as something to look up to, we’ve forgotten the comfort we can find in nothingness.

I never bring a compass with me. When you’re lost, you don’t think about anything but finding your way out. It’s as if I detached from everything else in the world. Silence calms the racket in my mind. The screeching branches sound just like a lullaby to me.
The woods are not the only thing that soothes me. When I head home back from school, I like to visit Maria and her family. Just the other day I brought her a bouquet of red flowers just cause I felt like it. She was so happy she jumped right away on my bike’s basket and asked me to take her on a ride. It was pretty awkward, but we had so much fun. I drove really slow, so she wouldn’t fall on the first bump we got to, but I lost control of the bike because I focused only on her face. We tripped and fell to the sidewalk. We barely got a scratch, though. I helped her back up, and when she gave me her hand it was so warm, as if she had sunk it in a steamy tub of water. It felt so good… I haven’t thought of anything else since.

I got back to my room and wrote a little poem about what happened. It wasn’t any good, but it was like drawing a picture of that moment so that I can remember it in the future. Gazing back into the day was like getting hit in the face by a tidal wave of emotions . I kinda like it when my feelings get so intense. I forget how to name them. Mhm. Maybe there’s a name for what I’m feeling now, but I wouldn’t know for sure…

When I feel like this it’s as if I sat on a prairie at and looked up to the stars radiating their light above me. Have you ever gazed at the sky for so much time that you felt the Earth is spinning, how everything’s moving, and that you’re a part of that same movement? That’s the sort of feeling I have when I think of her. I’m pretty sure this should be a universal experience, but it’s clear to me that not many people have lived through this sort of emotion. At least I’m sure my friends haven’t felt it at all. They behave like such jerks all the time, goofing around without caring about what others feel. Just the other day they played a game where they had to throw eggs against people from a moving car; ruining somebody’s day just to have a laugh. They’re so caught up in themselves, it seems as though they think they’ll always be able to get things their way. They run everywhere without watching their step, like a bunch of deceived bugs circling a lightbulb. I’m pretty sure that if they opened themselves to the beauty in the things that are right in front of their noses they would be so much happier.

Me, I can see things spinning, even when I’m sitting on a chair. I can see it in my plants, how they get a little bigger every passing day. Things can be so fascinating when you look at them from the right direction.

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(End of fiction)

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Prinsomnia (Ivy Berces) loves creating art, blue skies, and many nice things in between. She is 17 years old and based in the Philippines. You can find more of her work on her Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.