Painting description

The sky blends smoothly from navy to sky blue; beneath it, a honey-colored desert and a dark ridge of hills. In the middle stands a gaunt creature on spidery stilts, with a long neck and a mask-like face, draped with trinkets. A card with a butterfly, a red apple, a fish on a fork, and a pear split like a violin gleam like clues in a riddle. It’s a camel with a strange head and a fish on a fork. The theatrical composition and the faux wooden frame hold the scene motionless in a cool hush. The mood is drowsy and a little ill at ease, yet playful, and you waver between laughter and a shiver. Glazes, minute detail, and trompe l’oeil create pure surrealism, speaking of memory lugging its bric-a-brac. I have mixed feelings, but somehow in a good way, because this jumble of meanings is just weird.