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It’s a Fish with a Mustache in a Top Hat

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People keep asking me what it is and I’m like, “It’s very obviously a fish with a mustache wearing a top hat.” A fancy koi fish, to be precise. Like how is that not obvious? I feel like, while I may not be the greatest artist in the world, when I make a picture of a fish with a mustache wearing a top hat, it looks exactly like a fish with a mustache wearing a top hat.

It goes with the jackalope and the catterflies. I actually finished it last week but I was so tired I forgot to take a picture of it. He took so much extra time to make because I accidentally put his face on sideways and it was a lot of work to fix it and cover up the mistake.

The sakura blossoms, of course, symbolize the fleeting nature of life, youth, and beauty.

Originally I was going to make 7 of these “part real, part imaginary” banners because there are 7 columns but already there is a giant sun? sunflower? occupying one of them and I think it’s possible I might be asked to create a large Dewey Decimal System poster for another, plus it’s time to change out the bulletin boards and then comes the mad rush to lay out the literary journal and get that to the printer’s so it’s ready for the release party, immediately after which I’m going to Chicago to present my new comic book at the American Literary Association convention.

So, we’ll see. But this fish with a mustache and a top hat is a vision realized. Originally I thought he might also wear a monocle but that would just be silly, right?

In Person Learning! A Welcome Back Banner

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Not gonna lie: pretty proud of this effort, all things considered.

My district is going back to in-person learning after their spring break (which is this week) and the front office staff asked me to work my magic on the front window. (With social distancing, temperature checks, and hand sanitizing, I’m guessing there’s going to be a bit of a bottleneck there in the mornings.) Since I was also making my own back-to-school/spring bulletin board, and this week was break, I really had to jam.

This is the biggest piece I’ve done to date. It’s about 170 cm wide by 180 cm high, which is bigger than me in both directions. It took three people to hang (haven’t figured out how to get a good photograph from outside because it’s behind a glass window and there’s a glare). My head was in all kind of places all week and I was constantly miscounting and mismeasuring things (anybody need a heraldic lion? ‘Cause I have extra) plus I really just slapped all that lettering together in record time and those rainbow bullseyes should have been much more complex mandalas and I’m still quite satisfied with it. The front office staff loved it and the principal thanked me too.