Matte poster
This axolotl poster is a print ready to frame: an axolotl facing forward, in a red plaid shirt and denim jacket, looking at you calmly from a plain background. This is Ikal, a character from my Animal Kinhood series.
Ambystoma mexicanum
Working the chinampa means caring for the water where the last axolotl lives.
Endemic exclusively to the canals and chinampas of the Xochimilco lake system, in Mexico City, at 2,240 meters of altitude. It inhabits the muddy beds of cold fresh water (between 6 and 20 °C), among aquatic vegetation such as ahuejote and water lily, in low-current zones. Its historic habitat also included the now-extinct lakes of Chalco and Texcoco.
This print captures only what you can see: an axolotl with pale pink skin, red feathery gills open on either side of his head like a crown, and a wide mouth curved upward, as if something amused him. I created him facing forward against a plain background: on a wall, he doesn't need anything around him. The only warmth of color comes from the gills and the red plaid of the shirt, against the worn blue of the denim.
He lost Tlanextli when he was twenty, and with her went several plant names he'd only half written down. He barely changed anything in the house: he keeps it the way it was, and this print follows that same instinct — holding on to what matters without any fuss. As an art print, the matte finish avoids glare and works on any wall. Ikal is one of a whole family of dressed animals I portray in Animal Kinhood; if you like how this one turns out, there's more in the rest of the collection. I make them myself, Yago Partal.
