MMXII

Back in the summer of 2012, I had just finished my first year of university studies with a level of satisfaction comparable to the hardships I had initially endured. Thus, I decided to treat both myself and my (former) partner, Marta, with a trip to Rome.

I had had the opportunity to visit Rome with friends a number of times in the past, but this occasion was different for hopefully apparent reasons. I do not intend to focus on the details of the trip itself, as it should suffice to say that it was a special holiday with a special person.

Nonetheless, the relationship eventually came to an end, and not a particularly pleasant one for either of us; that is life, especially when one is in their late teens/early twenties. The parting of our ways was fairly clear-cut in time and space, but for some reason, letting go of the memories (both the pleasant and unpleasant ones) proved much more difficult than I had imagined. To aid with that and find closure (I might sound overly dramatic with my word choices, but please bear with me!), I decided to put something down on paper.

I have always had a passion for drawing and doodling (I will openly admit that high-school and university desks proved very fertile for those!), although I never took art lessons of any sorts. It was really just a way to rest the mind or to fight off the boredom that e.g., having to listen about the lives of 12th century Italian poets could bring about!

Either way, it was in April 2015 that I decided to draw something more structured and with more meaning than most of my other doodlings up to that point; something that could capture the beauty of that trip to Rome. Over the course of a couple of months, after countless hours of work in my room at the WOKO student house at Meierwiesenstrasse 62 in Zürich, this was the result, which I titled MMXII (or ‘2012’ in Roman numerals), shown here below.

MMXII: Sakura Micron pen on smooth Fabriano F4 paper (33 x 24 cm), digitized at 600 dpi. Drawn freehand and with no underlying pencil sketch: every line is a first and last try, and every mistake and imperfection is there to stay. A full-resolution version of the drawing is available here.

This remains my favourite drawing I have ever drawn to this day. I eventually gifted it to Marta a few months afterwards (somehow, I just felt it belonged with her), on the only condition that she would not let it rot in a drawer, but that she would keep it in a place where it would be in sight. I had even framed it prior to giving it to her, to aid with that!

I never got to know whether she stayed faithful to this desire of mine, given that we do not hear from one another more than once every couple of years, and that she is now a married women and a mother. Yet, even if the original might indeed be rotting in a secluded place somewhere, I am glad a copy of it made it here, in the digital realm.