fuerte, frio, picante

Some collages take me minutes to think up. This cut-paper collage postcard—of a jaguar, ice crystals, and peppers—took me several weeks. (They were tumultuous weeks in my so-called Real Life.) It got very complicated at one point, then simplified over time. And I kept changing my mind about the animal element: first I chose two antelopes, then two parrots, then finally this jaguar.

The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the third-largest feline, after the tiger and the lion, and the largest feline in the Western Hemisphere. (From a photo by Frans Lanting.) The gases coming off Mount Erebus—an active volcano in Antarctica—freeze, melt, and freeze again in a network of ice caves. (From a photo by Carsten Peter.) The peppers are Piper indicum, two different varieties. (From drawings by a 16th-century botanist, Basilius Besler.)