Friday, September 23, 2011

Halloweenie Mini-Mummy



I hesitated to post this because it is so cute, and people will say how nice it is that I can do cute things. This is what the management at Trader Joe's wants, and of course I will do it right. And then someone will say, well you might do children's books, and I would reply, I would do it, but I would spend my children's book earnings on booze and become an alcoholic.

There are four of these cute Halloweenies in the series. Three of them are previously scary figures and one is just cute all the way through. I have done Mini-Dracula and Mini-Ghost, and the other one is the Black Cat in the Witch Hat popping out of a jack 'o' lantern. The mini's are images of kids in costumes, really, not the actual Halloween figures.

That's because the real Halloween figures of the Mummy, Ghost, Vampire, etc. are horrifying and terrible and UNDEAD, and they were once things to make tough souls tremble, creatures who drank the blood of children. But just like other awesome monsters like Cthulhu or Godzilla or even plague germs, they have been cutesy-fied and turned into plushies or little costumes for kids. This is what has happened to the terrible fantasies of the previous (20th) century. Cuteness, rather than rationality, drained the dark power out of the fictional monsters, while real monsters walked the earth un-trivialized. So where are the scary monsters now? They're still very much with us, but I can't put a kiddie version of them up in the store.

"Mini-Mummy" is about 2 feet x 3 1/2 feet, acrylic spray paint and markers on Masonite, September 2011.

2 comments:

Mike (Altus) said...

"I would spend my children's book earnings on booze and become an alcoholic."

This is one of the best quotes I've read in a long time!

Also, I like your cute mummy. :)

Tristan Alexander said...

hmm, if I had done this, I would have put faces on all the pumpkins and one under his foot would be looking up and afraid!!