Rodents on the Go
It all started innocently enough. For the landmark birthday of a good friend of mine, I painted a picture of a female squirrel headed south for the winter in her pink convertible (she has a bit of a squirrel obsession, and I have to say I can relate). It was a tiny little painting, no more than about 8 x 10. If I'm going to gift someone with a piece of art, I like to keep it on the smaller size, so that there isn't a three foot by four foot painting of a squirrel driving a pink convertible destroying the Feng Shui of their minimalist living room.
My sister Jocelyn saw what I had done and liked the idea enough to commission her own small painting, to become a gift to the newborn child of a relative. It was her concept for the squirrel to be piloting a vintage World War One Sopwith Camel airplane (the type made famous by Snoopy in his imaginary dogfights with the Red Baron).
Pleased enough with my effort, Joss, who is a long-time supporter of the arts, especially painters, thought it would be a great idea to gift any new child in her life with a painting, as a means of potentially sparking a life-long interest in the visual arts. Great idea.
And thus a veritable deluge of rodents-piloting-vehicles paintings ensued.
We went full on Miami Vice, with "Speedboat Squirrel".
That was followed by "Speedbike Squirrel". A trend was becoming obvious...not only are squirrels proficient drivers of all types of craft, but they look cool doing it!
For a baby girl, "Skateboard Squirrel" became her unique piece of art:
And just to illustrate the international reach of this motif, here is "Scooter Squirrel", with a Vespa-riding rodent in what is a European-flavored seaside town:
I suppose there are worse fates. It could be something completely preposterous like...say...dogs playing pool.
The squirrels and more can be found on my Fine Art America page:
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