The color of Rocinante

A couple of years ago –when I first heard about Artist Trading Cards, it seemed like something I would like to do, but was hesitant as I didn’t think I would have enough time for one more activity in my life. The ATC event at the OUSA convention was a good enticement though. I participated because it combines several things that are meaningful to me: origami, small-format artwork, play, barter, and the opportunity to connect with others who have similar interests.

In April, when I made a commitment to participate in the swap, I was at the time producing some illustrations of horses. I printed the horses on paper I normally used to fold traditional origami shirts as an experiment, and decided to use these shirts to make my ATC edition.

One morning, after I had already folded the fifty shirts needed for the edition, I was showing them to John, my husband, and he suggested I give names to the horses. During the course of our conversation we determined that these names should be those of historical or literary horses, and their riders. I loved the idea, but it involved researching the names of fifty famous horses, typing the names under the illustration of each horse, printing the horses on new pieces of paper, cutting the paper, and then refolding 50 new shirts to make a whole new set of cards. In short, it meant doing the project all over again!

I laughed when I thought of all the effort I would have to invest a new, and placed all the blame on John for planting such an idea in my head. Soon after though, I was fully engaged in researching the names of famous horses and their equally famous riders. After about four weeks of putting in an hour of work here and two hours there, the new set of cards was completed.

I traveled to New York with a little box full of cards representing horses such as Bucephalos, ridden by Alexander the Great’s; Babieca, who was EL Cid’s mount; that most famous steed of Simon Bolivar, Palomo; and of course Silver and the Lone Ranger. Among those fifty though, the pair closest to my heart was Don Quixote’s and his loyal companion, Rocinante.

What color was Rocinante, I wondered as I did these illustrations? Cervantes never told us. And although Rocinante is represented as white in all the illustrations I found, I made my Rocinante black.