Medium Rare ILLUSTRATION collage

Mona Art digital illustration art print by Zala Česnik

Even though I’m a vegetarian I still love to depict meat in my artworks, though the most extensive way I went when it came to meat and art was in my first year of college at sculpturing class. We had to pick one object or food that we then had to reacreate in clay, as original to the original as possible, the deception for the eye (trompe l’oeil). I picked … wait for it … pork tenderloin. 🙈

I bought it, kept it in my freezer and took it out when it was time to sculpt. It was not easy for me to even look at it, even more to touch it, but hey, it was in the name of art and the fact I wanted to surprize everyone, including myself, with the choice of this object. I wanted to push the boudaries and stand out. And stand out I did. 🤭

Making this collage was obviously a very different experience, I’m a vegetarian but my boyfriend isn’t. He sometimes buys and prepares his steaks while I eat veggie meat. The raw meat on a chopping board has it’s own juicy aesthetics I tried to depict with a very vivid red. It also releases some of its blood when you cut it, and even though I’m a bit disgusted with it, it’s appealing in its own visual way. And since I’m a scorpio I don’t mind the darkness that surrounds it, it compels me in a way.

And also now we already have a pretty good veggie meat on the market, that imitates the real meat in a completely new way, bluring the lines or what real meat looks like compared to the veggie one.

And that in my opinion is a true artistry of a trompe l’oeil achieved in real life and what this artwork is all about.

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