The book is based on the following motivational quote :
“Every day in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster that the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running.”
Some six years ago I learned about this quote for the first time. Back then the boss I was working for had it displayed – framed – in his office as his favorite saying. Something I absolutely could not relate to. Why would people think it is motivational to wake up in the morning and fear for ones life? I am certainly glad that I don’t need this kind of motivation to get up in the morning.
Throughout the pages the blades of grass display parts of the quote. I erased words to alter the quote but did not change the sequence of the words. For example you can read ‘a gazelle knows a lion’ or ‘the sun comes up’. The images of lion and gazelle are carved as a rubber-stamps, then printed and with a fine-point marker rendered. The lion is sitting in a collage, presented as a main course. On the back of the book you find again blades of grass – I used a stencil and pochoir, using a brush and a stamp pad. This book is not meant to be taken too serious …