Dulk aka Antonio Segura Donat is a highly imaginative artist and illustrator. He’s created a dream-like world filled with fairytale-esque creatures and critters he brings to life on the streets. His most recent mural, “Le Renard et Le Corbeau” (“The Fox and The Crow”) coordinated by Galerie 36e Art brought him to the mountain region of Saint Dié des Vosges in France where he interpreted a fable by the famous French writer Jean de la Fontaine.
About the Mural
Most remember the classic fable, The Fox and The Crow from their childhood. The tale is about a fox that while strolling through the woods encounters a crow up in a tree with a piece of cheese the fox wants. The sly fox begins to compliment the crow and asks it to sing. The crow, flattered by such praise does so and drops the cheese. The fox quickly snatches up the cheese to enjoy for himself.
The moral is to be cautious of those who flatter you, as they may not have the honorable intentions they present.
The beauty of Dulk’s artwork is a combination of influences mixed with an offbeat and affectionate touch that makes it direct, intriguing and quite honest. The imagery is kept in his usual style; it depicts a forest with animals that have exaggerated features and personalities, as we see in the boar-inspired tree, fox and birds. However, the mural’s concept is a complete, and much darker reiteration of the old story. Instead, the mural portrays all the animals painted as targets, including the crow and fox, which has been hit with an arrow. Here, it almost seems as though the fox is clinging on to the crow.
Dulk offers quite a different moral from its original. One could say it insights the not-so honorable intentions humanity has towards wildlife, which at the same also tends to glamorize it.
It’s truly a thought-provoking idea that’s cleverly presented in a fantastical reinvented story.
About the Artist
Antonio Segura Donat aka Dulk, is a Spanish artist, born in Valencia in 1983. As a child he copied illustrations of exotic animals he found in his parents’ collection of old encyclopedias, and took his sketchbook everywhere he went. At the age of nineteen, a close friend persuaded him to tackle the city’s walls and suggested he take the pseudonym, Dulk. Soon after entering college to study economics, he decided to study illustration instead. He began his second year of school at the University of Valencia where he focused on graphic design.
Today, Dulk is an all-purpose artist. Between urban art, drawing, painting, sculpture or graphic design. Each medium is a challenge that he takes with pleasure and determination.
With his viewpoint that reflects the innocent mind he had as a child, he’s created a collection of tragi-comic animal themed works all painted in organic colors. His world is a surrealistic landscape full of imaginary details, rising up in factions against humanity. Perhaps these animals are warning us of Earth’s bleak future following an environmental catastrophe.
His murals can be spotted in cities all across the globe from Europe and Canada to the United States.
