Humpty Dumpty, Again

For reasons obscure even to me, I occasionally become fixated on anthropomorphic eggs falling off walls. However, if memory serves, this is the first one where I attempted (not very successfully) to have the character look like he's actually starting to slip off the wall instead of being firmly ensconced atop it. The reason he seems either unaware of his plight or is indifferent to it is because it's hard to decipher the emotions of an egg. It's even harder to refrain from making puns about how hardboiled and scrambled his personality and thoughts must be, even though he is only a shell of his former self. Still, I'll refrain from writing such rotten puns, although the baser part of my nature keeps egging me on.

Tongue-Cut Sparrow

This is another old drawing. One of Kathy's favorite folktales is "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow," so I drew this for her, along with some other drawings illustrating the story. The reason I selected this particular piece is that I recall how much fun I had drawing the anthropomorphic birds.

Profiles

Here's yet another old piece. I assumed, when I first disinterred it from a pile of ancient doodles, that I drew it for Sarah, perhaps as an illustration for some made-up fairy tale I would tell her at bedtime. The only trouble is the date on the back shows it was drawn when Sarah might have been a bit too old for such tales. So now I'm dubious that there is any reason behind this piece other than just the mere pleasure of taking a pencil for a walk, of letting it rove where it will. Besides, drawing just to draw, "art for art's sake" with no other goal or agenda behind it, is a wonderfully good reason for any drawing's existence. So it seems this drawing was only drawn for the fun of it. And a good thing, too, since I have no idea what story I would have had to come up with to go along with it.

After the Rain

"To look at a star by glances -- to view it in a side-long way, by turning toward it the exterior portions of the retina (more susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the interior), is to behold the star distinctly -- is to have the best appreciation of its luster -- a luster which grows dim just in proportion as we turn our vision fully upon it."  (Edgar A. Poe)

Don't you think it remarkable that what is often so true of the stars is also often so true of ourselves?

Rumpelstiltskin

Here's another old painting, done in 2005. Along with the skeletons and sad-eyed, emaciated ghosts whispering their mournful laments, it's surprising what all else one may stumble upon when cleaning an attic. There's not a great deal I can say about this piece. Obviously, this painting was done just for the fun of it.

A Good Egg, All in All

Here's a piece done in 2006. Sarah would have been too old for fairy tales then, so I don't know what led me to paint what is supposed to be Humpty Dumpty. I doubt even all the king's horses and all the king's men would know either.