I hate acrylic paint.

Oh boy oh boy do I. I had forgotten my hatred for acrylic. The pieces I've done so far here at Corazon have been with gouache. I forgot how much I love gouache! Barely any of the actual product has to be used and it covers fairly evenly. AND. The best is that it blends beautifully. Acrylic just lays there and has the audacity to DRY. What the hell, acrylic, I expect you to stay alive as long as it takes me to blend you. That's ALL I expect. And no, nothing. However, acrylic, I will say the one good thing about you is that there is much more flexibility in detailing. Gouache blends almost too well - you add a new color and it absorbs the color with the moisture of the water. With acrylic, I remembered to layer. And ended up enjoying it.

Rant over, yesterday and today, I have been working feverishly to finish this piece...

Human Need : Physical : Shelter

I use the word "finish" too liberally. I'm not sure if I'm finished, but man oh man that rhino took a lot of time. And I'm really happy with it. Which is finished enough for me, for now. Shelter is one of the top basic human needs. I got the idea of using Durer's rhinoceros (below) because I saw it used in Bs As in one of the huge stenciled street art pieces. I thought of scrounging to find shelter, and how it would be whatever is available and covers me. The thought of the rhinoceros as an animal having its own shelter was one thought, but thinking of if a rhino lost its skin, similarly to a snake, this would make a great shelter. And the arrangement of the shield-like pieces comes from Durer. He had never seen a rhinoceros when he did the below etching. This was just based on descriptions, so, the real theme behind this piece is scrounging and make-shifting to satisfy one of the most important basic needs of humanity - for shelter and protection.

**As a note, I've recently finished the books: The Help, The Poisonwood Bible and am now listening to The Hunger Games. I find it so fitting that I'm immersing myself (unknowingly until now) in literature steeped in these basic needs of humanity and creature comforts. Pretty great how things work.