Countdown - all done!

"Do you have anything... uh... not so scary?"

That's a question I was asked (twice actually) late February at The Artist Project, a large art fair in Toronto I exhibited in. It was asked to me on separate occasions by two Mom's looking for something gentler. For a nursery.

You never know what will generate your next idea...

It did get me thinking about what I found gentle when I was very young. I can't imagine life without Sesame Street. I know many feel the same way. I always liked The Count. It was his laugh mostly. (I'm also a fan of Oscar the Grouch.)

I have trouble waking up early... 

I'm a very deep sleeper. At one point I had 3 alarm clocks. The most effective of them all was my twin hammer bell alarm clock (those classic looking alarm clocks - there's a reason they've been around so long). Until it stopped working, it was most effective in accelerating my heart rate each morning. I was thinking about what it felt like to get so abruptly woken up each morning. What would that look like in a painting? 

Combining the two:

The new painting above is called 'Countdown'. In it, The Count, under moonlight is laughing famously as he counts down the remaining seconds of an alarm clock so loud it shatters itself under the arrival of the day's first light! The Count's cape also acts as a veil between the separation of night and day. (Inspired by Greek mythology of merging the abilities of Nyx (goddess of night) and Eos (goddess of dawn). Though he is a vampire, in the show Sesame Street, The Count circuits the day unscathed.)

But is it GENTLE and FIT for a nursery???

In my quest to bring this painting to you, I seem to have strayed from the realm of affable baby decor once again... I guess I just like painting "scary" things...