The paintings of Máté Orr [1985, Veszprém] are rooted in a personal mythology, whose characters, whether animals, half-human-half-animal hybrids, centaurs lead us to the borderland between the human and the animate, where the creatures of nature are personified, taking on an anthropomorphic character. Although the fables of Esopus and La Fontaine relating to animal behaviour can be inferred in his paintings, nothing can be readily codified within Orr's works. Realistic forms are often complicated by flatter, more graphic elements, making them symbolic rather than invoking a physical presence. A rabbit is the protagonist of ‘The Pond’, showing the strongest, most excited emotion. Plants indicate that the scene is taking place in Nature, in a meadow, in the rabbit's home environment. However, in the centre of the picture, is a circular, very regular, schematic, unnatural-looking pond. The pond is a mirror of water and as the rabbit touches its surface, ripples are created. It is an unfamiliar environment for the rabbit, but the warm light emanating from the pond makes it inviting and alluring. The water mirror is, therefore, the real focus of the painting, a boundary through which we see into another world. A crocodile is the other protagonist of the picture. As a reptile, the creature is at home in both realms, and represents a source of danger for the rabbit which is on the border of both known and unknown worlds. In ‘The Pond’, Orr captures the experience of encountering something new and appealing in our lives but which also has a strange or frightening aspect. However, the unknown can offer excitement which is too inviting to be able to resist immersing ourselves in it. Water is often used to symbolise the unknown in art history. Human lives are so tied to the land that water can be interpreted as a landscape of the unfamiliar, a land of disorientation.