Monday, December 15, 2014

I Forgot Santa Lucia

I drew this three years ago when my littlun was still most definitely too little to serve her parents breakfast in bed, which certainly, certainly would have had to have been done without the ceremonial attire that includes !!!A FIERY HEADDRESS!!!.
Now my littlun is bigger, and so capable. She is a marvel. But I still don't really need her to set her hair on fire or anything; mostly I'm after the kind of breakfast-in-bed that only the sweetest 10-year-old could provide. I have not had breakfast in bed in three zillion years. Were she to prepare it, it would probably consist of a plastic cup half-full of water, and a slice of toast. She would have forgotten that I rarely eat bread, toasted or not, because of tummy reasons. But she would be proud, and I would be proud. And maybe, if luck were with me, she'd scrape a little Nutella across the toast.But the 13th came, and the 13th went, and I was so busy making things I can't show you yet, and I forgot. This is still one of my favorite drawings, though. It glows.

Sunday, December 07, 2014

Free Hugs

What if we walked toward each other?
What would you do, faced with the offer of a free hug?
Would it matter, what I looked like? What you looked like?



Too often when I read the news, I think, I can't believe it's not 1968. Here it is forty-six years later, and we can land a space probe on a comet four billion miles away, but we still have to struggle for human rights.
It is 2014 and people who look like me, while walking down the sidewalk pretty much anywhere in the USA, may see a grown-up version of this boy in this hoodie, without a Free Hugs sign, and they'll cross the street.
Why?
And how, in particular, did a hoodie become such a charged piece of clothing? A hoodie: so comfy, so pragmatic. I've drawn them on my children characters time and time again. I'm wearing a hoodie right now. It has fleece on the inside. I'm full of good times with my family, featuring really delicious food, and my hoodie is a smidge too tight around my middle; it feels like a little bit like a hug.
When I drew this (feeling so troubled, late, late, late into the night) I was inspired by Devonte Hart who I assume was inspired by Juan Mann's Free Hugs campaign. I was inspired by Portland Police Sergeant Bret Barnum, too. Few people have the courage to take anybody up on the offer of a free hug. And yes, I was thinking about Trayvon Martin's hoodie.