This is the year that finally we are going to see the release of our long awaited Bakker./Rey collaboration with Random House… before the final sprint (that I’m currently working on) here’s something that I have also been working on these days. Please bear in mind…It is just a wok in progress!
It is a fact that global warming is affecting everybody (and in many more harm ways than any good ones). Paradoxically, while many people in Britain were affected by terrible floods, here in London we have been having a very unseasonal mild winter that has allowed me to work a little in my cold, damp back-yard workshop without fearing hypothermia…. the results can be seen in this clay sculpture. 
I have always loved the Aztec “eagle and serpent on top of a cactus” symbol (A myth that enticed them to build Tenochtitlan, the capital of their empire). If the Mayans “got it wrong” these days well, the Aztecs got it right then and built an incredible floating city over a lake… that is the power of the myth over the human mind… for good or bad! Unfortunately the Spaniards had a lot less imagination and destroyed that marvel of the ancient world.
This emblematic image has also been emblazoned in the Mexican flag… obviously being me, I was not going to do a simple recreation of the famous image… so I decided to make the whole scene some 90-70 million years before… hopefully an inspiration to all Mexican palaeontologists, now you can see Deinonychus (instead of the eagle) wrestling a relative of Eupodophis, the primitive snake with vestigial hind limbs… talk about tongue in cheek exercises! The style pretends to be reasonably based on Aztec art… although we can imagine they would be very surprised to see the scene this way!
And yes it seems there were primitive cacti in the Cretaceous… the shape and form in my piece may be questionable though!
Needless to say, the job is only half finished… I will apply colour accordingly when it dries out completely (maybe even inspired by the fabulous colour treatments of Carlos Soteno). Watch this space for the final piece in the near future. Happy New Year.
Luis V. Rey Blog 
I’m loving this, Luis. Really fine looking. Please post more pictures when you are done!
“Bakker./Rey collaboration”: Still can’t wait! In the mean time, I do have 2 questions: When can we expect to see it mentioned on Amazon (even if it’s not yet for sale)? Will it be for adults (While I enjoy all of Bakker’s books, it’s been too long since his last adult book)? Many thanks in advance.
“clay sculpture”: Reminds me of a Deinonychus painting at DA ( http://slategray.deviantart.com/art/Northwestern-deinonychus-head-14878277 ). In any case, I like it. There should be more American Indian-style dino art. I do have 1 question, though: Why’d you pick those 2 genera in particular? Again, many thanks in advance.
I’m loving it!
The new Bakker/Rey book still has no precise release date. It will be as much for adults as you want it it to be (but it is a remake of a very famous book from the 50’s and it is meant for children too) . I will notify of it as soon as I know. Regarding the choosing of the genera, well the question was that what I wanted to illustrate was the Aztec motif… I arbitrarily chose the species but I tried to keep them somewhat contemporary… nothing strict…… Denonychus was an obvious choice for the raptorial eagle and one of the best known snake from the Cretaceous is what you see there (hence the vestigial hind limbs)… after doing my homework (so it would not look too absurd) the rest is purely tongue in cheek. Someone will want to see another possible use of the “terrible claw” there…
I see that eagle/cactus bit, but when I first thought this i thought it was a play on the Quetzelcoatl, the feathered serpent.
I’m loving this. Please let me post this image on my Facebook page (La mordida del Anomalocaris: https://www.facebook.com/lamordidadelanomalocaris )