Really? (I mean…REALLY?)
So today I got a very nice e-mail from a librarian who has participated in the summer reading program, for which I did the big poster and art and whatnot. (Which, hey, I can post now!)
In addition to the main poster, I did a bunch of little spot art that went into various T-shirts and bookmarks and tote bags and stuff. They kept the aquatic theme, and the committee was very clear on what they wanted, so honestly, a lot of it looks like something that would go on a pair of board shorts, and at one point I found myself doing a shark covered in tribal tattoos, about which my feelings were…well, damnit, if anything in the fish world would get tribal tattoos, it would be a mako shark, and did I mention they were paying REALLY well?
The shark became a bookmark. I thought no more about it. And then the very good-natured librarian wrote me, eyes rolling audibly-and I shall not mention name or location to protect the innocent-to say that one of her patrons had become concerned because those squiggles! They looked like Arabic! And the patron had used the bookmark in her Bible!
You know, not a single person has said “By the way, your poster is a GIANT GOAT GOD RISING FROM THE SEA! Repent, sinner!” and thrown holy water. I was kinda braced for that. I had a little speech prepared about the mythological representation of Capricorn as a sea-goat and the Tropic of Capricorn and so forth. (Actually, a couple people wrote to ask what the inspiration was, but they were all very nice about it.) I mean, heck, back in that regrettable period when Mom was married to a crazy evangelical, unicorns, rainbows and stars were secret Satanist signs,* along with the moon and the Beatles. Had they had their way, goat-kind would have been exterminated, and the loss to our collective cheese culture the price we paid for virtue.
So I was ready for that. I didn’t agree with it, but I was ready for it.
Tribal shark tattoos resembling Arabic…that was not something I was expecting. (The librarian was very clear that she thought said patron needed to get real things to worry about, but wanted to give me a chance to address it.)
God, I love the world. It’s batshit crazy sometimes, but it’s never, ever dull.
Compositionally this one looks weird naked--the dead space at the top went to text, and a lot of the bleed got...well...bled, so he looks bigger and more imposing in the final. Still, for a piece with a lot of committee input, I feel it came out rather well.
*I have been picturing Satan carrying around a Lisa Frank Trapper-Keeper ever since, possibly doodling “Satan + Milton 4 EVAR” on it in gel pens.
Originally published at Tea with the Squash God. You can comment here or there.