I met up with Daniel Mrgan this week as he put the final touches on his solo show “Sick Days” that opens tonight at C. Emerson gallery in St. Pete.

Daniel is very talented illustrator who has an even more impressive personality. Welcoming me in his home with a glass of ginger-ale, Mr. Mrgan gives me insight on how his illustrations come to life and how silent movies from the 20’s and 30’s are involved.

Artist’s statement
For the most part, I am a healthy individual. No major ailments or conditions that I can speak of. But it wasn’t always so.

Some of my earliest, and certainly most vivid, childhood memories are of doctors’ offices, hospital waiting rooms, and a plethora of various home remedies (which in Croatia, where I was raised, are referred to as bablji lijekovi, or “grandma’s medicine”). You see, I had a tendency to get ill as a child.  A lot. In addition to the seasonal flu, stomach viruses, common colds, and runny noses that I suppose are a standard part of many a childhood, I suffered from chronic bronchitis, asthma, and multiple allergies. Needless to say, my fragile health made an assortment of pills, tissue boxes and an arsenal of inhalers a constant presence on my nightstand and in my pockets and school backpack. While most of my peers got sent off to school with a kiss and a reminder to not forget their lunch bags, mittens, hats, and such, my mother often had to shout after me: “… and don’t forget your tissues and inhaler!”

If prescribed medications didn’t work for some reason, there was my grandmother – our household’s endless resource of diverse, bulletproof home remedies that would without a doubt cure whatever was ailing me in three to four days, tops. Pig’s lard on the chest for bronchitis and asthma, vinegar-soaked socks for high fever, salt for scraped and bleeding knees and elbows, raw quail eggs and honey for strength, and my personal favorite of preventative medicine – wearing a red item of clothing is an open invitation to chickenpox, so don’t do it!

All of these experiences made me curiously aware of my body and the way it functioned. I was too young to understand the science behind it but at an ideal age to explain it to myself through an imagination fueled by the richly illustrated children’s books and magazines that I was devouring at the time. Most often, I used nature as a departure point – my ailing lungs became two big and dried up leaves; veins in my body took the shape of grape vines found behind our house.

The work in this exhibit is inspired by those particular memories. The days of long hours spent in bed, the days of doctors and home remedies. The sick days.