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Squirrel Took My Bagel

Compliments:

	Ringfort: I love your work! again and again and again...... Posted Sep 19, 2008 8:19pm
	bridie knight: Great story to go with the picture! I like the idea of the dragonfly on a string - as long as there are no aggressive wasps around to fight the dragonfly! I once saw a terrible battle where a wasp attacked a dragonfly and felled it to the ground then proceeded to dive bomb it; the dragon fly stood on its hind legs (so to speak) and tried to battle off the wasp with its front feet. Quite a remarkable site and horrifying at the same time. I bet that squirrel had a terrible bellyache after eating that bagel! Posted Sep 20, 2008 2:44am
	waljarosz: Ha. Super. Posted Sep 20, 2008 5:22am
	sev: WHY have i not noticed you before ?? you are wonderful . I had a freind once who ´recounted a story of a fox fighting a squirrel in the middle of edinborough and I had my cheese sandwiches stolen by one in kew gardens , a squirrel , not a fox . Cant trust em. Ever. Nor peacocks. You are right about the black , it needed it totally. THIS IS FANTASTIC! i love the words , the look , the feel , the colours , its all one special package and if i were rich i would buy it. Posted Sep 20, 2008 7:34pm
	sev: You have , in fact , made my day. Posted Sep 20, 2008 7:34pm
	margaretajb: Squirreles are bandits! haha...Very good piece of art!! Posted Sep 26, 2008 10:41am

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Uploaded on September 19, 2008
by erikvp

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About this work:

Paintings and Drawings
Mixed media on wood.
22x17in(56x43cm)

Anteater is tired of eating ants and decides to buy a bagel. He goes to get something to drink and when he returns his bagel is missing. Where could it have gone? Anteater asks lizard where his bagel went. "Was it an everything bagel?", asks lizard. "Yes it was", says anteater. "Squirrel took your bagel", replies lizard. Anteater is not happy with squirrel.

The painting was inspired by a funny story my wife told me. She was at Prospect Park (Brooklyn, NY) and saw this squirrel run off with someone's bagel. It was one of those giant New York bagels...the ones that are about 6" in diameter and weigh two pounds. He carried the bagel up a tree and ate it.

When we lived in California, we visited the Santa Barbara zoo a few times. One of my favorite animals was the anteater. I think I like the unusual looking animals the most.

During the summer months in New York, there are lots of mosquitoes. My wife is always using Deet to keep them away. One day, we were feeding the ducks and this class of kids stops by the pond. The teacher points to a dragonfly and says they eat mosquitos. I wondered if tying a string to a dragonfly would keep the mosquitos away.

Painting on this piece of wood really frustrated me because I couldn't come up with anything worth keeping. It was probably my fourth attempt at a painting. However, the layers of paint and newspaper made for a great irregular surface to paint on. The razor blade scratches also look a little deeper than other paintings.

I have used the horizontal split across the top of the painting several times before. It's inspired by one of my favorite artists, Wosene and also used in Egyptian art. The black and white section has nothing to do with the lower section, yet I don't think the painting would look very good without it. It's kind of interesting how they work together.

The black are is not really a perfect black as seen in the photo. I had some trouble with glare when taking the photo, so I modified in photoshop but it ended up looking a little too perfectly black.

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