"Safari"

I imagine other people will create darling caravans of cuteness for this week’s Illustration Friday challenge, but I hear echoes of the old Japanese guy I used to work with telling me “You not cute!” Once in a while I did cute just to prove him wrong, but I don’t feel cute today. It’s dark and raining, AGAIN. Besides, I made this art this week, and would like some suggestions for what to do with it. I’ve been making a series of square, graphic things with the computer based on my nighttime tv doodles. I feel kind of compulsive about it, but I don’t really know what to do with them when they’re done.

Maybe this art is kind of like “safari” because I was thinking about Homer’s Odyssey when I was making it. It may not be the same thing as packing everything you own on a camel, but Odysseus basically had a nautical safari. The moon phases show the passing of time, and the suns show multiple days and seasons.

In a different way, isn’t “safari” a lot like questing? I don’t always know why I make the art I do, I just know it’s compulsory. I may not be after elephant tusks or Jason’s Golden Fleece; I just know I’m searching for something. Maybe all of the comments of “You not cute” or the judgments of others who try to identify me into a neat little box have created a need for me to make square art? It seems like people who try to put me in a box often have lists of things I “should” do too, and that just makes me contrary about their suggestions. Why don’t people say what we “could” do instead of “should” when they’re handing out advice? “Could” is full of possibilities. “Should” is full of restrictions, and I don’t want to live in a box someone else created.

Vive la différence!