Mr. T

"Mr. T" - mixed media on aquabord, 11" x 14".  Ready to frame.  Available on Artfinder.

I'm back
I'm back in the saddle again
I'm back
I'm back in the saddle again​
                   Aerosmith

After a long hiatus, a full day in the studio and the wonderful, incredible, exhilarating feel of playing with paint.  There is nothing quite like it to soothe what ails you.  This piece, inspired by the luxurious Toby Jon (my niece's rabbit), is the result of a half million layers (a slight exaggeration), wiping the board nearly clean, starting again, embracing the mess and going with the flow.  The beauty of aquabord.  Paint, rinse, repeat.

We had a pet rabbit (briefly) when I was a kid.  "Kelly" never did like me, so I wan't sorry when my mom found a new home for him.  In all fairness to the rabbit, we really didn't know what we were doing with him, and we didn't take the time to understand what rabbits really wanted.  After spending nearly two weeks with Toby, a thoroughly civilized bunnykins, I now know how delightful and therapeutic these fuzzy love bundles can be.

Toby is box trained, and has the run of the house most of the day.  You will find him perched on a kitchen chair, whiskers a-twitching after breakfast.  And perhaps underneath the chair you're sitting in at lunch.  And during dinner he might be loping around the house in a half-fast pace, sneaking through the barriers set up to keep him safe from electrical cords (a favorite snack, apparently).  But mostly, what Toby wants is a good snuggle.  He gets snuggled in the morning, snuggled at night, and snuggled whenever he misses his humans.  You can feel his little breathing quicken when he is happy in your arms, and sometimes he even makes a sort of contented groan (rabbits are generally voiceless).  

So what happens to people when they stop throughout the day to cuddle a luxurious rabbit?  Instant de-stressing, that's what.  As wonderful as all this is for Toby, I get the feeling it is even better for the humans, who don't normally stop for these things unless something cute and cuddly forces them to.   It got me to thinking...how would world rulers rule if they were required to snuggle a rabbit during business hours?  Perhaps there would be a lot of folks with hair-covered suits, but there might also be a calmer, sweeter approach to world domination.