Dawn of the century series

(Collection of watercolor and acrylic illustrations related to Flappers and the Roaring 1920's)

"I had no idea of originating an American flapper when I first began to write. I simply took girls whom I knew very well and, because they interested me as unique human beings, I used them for my heroines."
F. Scott Fitzgerald

"They're all desperadoes, these kids, all of them with any life in their veins; the girls as well as the boys; maybe more than the boys."
Warner Fabian

"Lovely, expensive, and about nineteen."
F. Scott Fitzgerald's description of the ideal flapper

For most of my life I've considered the twentieth century as the most fascinating time period in the world history. Surely, I've cheated on my favorite century every now and then depending on what I was reading at that time, but who doesn't over-romanticize the Middle Ages after reading about Richard the Lionheart or doesn't dream of living in the eighteenth century North-American forest when reading the Leatherstocking Tales?

However, after a while I'd always revert to my original belief that the twentieth century has been the most important as well as the most fascinating century thus far. In a fashion similar to One Hundred Years of Solitude it unveiled every aspect of human nature and revealed how wonderful and how awful individuals and nations can allow themselves to become. Although, my "Dawn of the century" series have nothing to do with the latter. They are a tribute to my favorite decade of the last century - the 1920's, a time of hope, jazz and a blissful uncertainty...