Squirrel Took My Bagel

Squirrel Took My Bagel
2008 - 22"x17", Mixed media on wood
(SOLD)
www.ErikVP.com

Anteater is tired of eating ants and decides to buy a bagel. He goes to get something to drink and when he returns his bagel is missing. Where could it have gone? Anteater asks lizard where his bagel went. "Was it an everything bagel?", asks lizard. "Yes it was", says anteater. "Squirrel took your bagel", replies lizard. Anteater is not happy with squirrel.

The painting was inspired by a funny story my wife told me. She was at Prospect Park (Brooklyn, NY) and saw this squirrel run off with someone's bagel. It was one of those giant New York bagels...the ones that are about 6" in diameter and weigh two pounds. He carried the bagel up a tree and ate it.

When we lived in California, we visited the Santa Barbara zoo a few times. One of my favorite animals was the anteater. I think I like the unusual looking animals the most.

During the summer months in New York, there are lots of mosquitoes. My wife is always using Deet to keep them away. One day, we were feeding the ducks and this class of kids stops by the pond. The teacher points to a dragonfly and says they eat mosquitos. I wondered if tying a string to a dragonfly would keep the mosquitos away.

Painting on this piece of wood really frustrated me because I couldn't come up with anything worth keeping. It was probably my fourth attempt at a painting. However, the layers of paint and newspaper made for a great irregular surface to paint on. The razor blade scratches also look a little deeper than other paintings.

I have used the horizontal split across the top of the painting several times before. It's inspired by one of my favorite artists, Wosene and also used in Egyptian art. The black and white section has nothing to do with the lower section, yet I don't think the painting would look very good without it. It's kind of interesting how they work together.

The black are is not really a perfect black as seen in the photo. I had some trouble with glare when taking the photo, so I modified in photoshop but it ended up looking a little too perfectly black.