They're Not Listening Still

Artists, or 'artistes', are often misunderstood people. Take Hannah, for example, O sweet Hannah. So few of us understand her temperament, and even fewer of us understand her art.

It is only right, therefore, that I give this genius a chance and display some of her finest works in this blog for a public preview before they become priceless works in a few decades. Here are a series of works called Studies of Animals, spurred by my comment that a dog-shaped sandwich cutter pretty much looks like like any other four-legged animal. Hannah drew the series to refute the claim.

The first in the series, this portrait captures the ferret, the 'bobby dog,' and the 'friendly dog.'

The 'bobby dog' refers to Greyfriars Bobby, the legendary Skye terrier of Edinburgh that faithfully waited for its master even after his death and was awarded a key to the city, blah, blah, blah... When I saw the master at work on this piece (Hannah, not the dog's master), I commented "hey, that looks like that Bobby dog, Greyfriars Bobby," which she interpreted as "the bobby dog." And the friendly dog? Well, that's just on a level beyond my comprehension of the fine arts.

In continuing her series, Hannah moved on to another animal that looked a lot like her previous creatures, the wolf, whose one distinction was its massive mouth and gnarling teeth. Then, to show her range, Hannah added 'Cat,' a drawing unlike her previous creatures. Note the depiction of the cat from a different angle than previous works. This experimentation is much akin to that of the Cubists, like Picasso, who defied convention and drew objects from many different angles. When it was pointed out that the cat may have only looked different because it was a completely different profile and suggestions were made that Hannah couldn't draw a cat 'the right way,' the artist grew enraged and churned out the next and final two drawings.

"Mouse" and "Porcupine," once again showing Hannah's wealth of talents and range for animal depiction. They look nothing like her original canine portraits.

Brava, Hannah, Brava.

(On the subject of Andy Constable)
Moi: Who of the many Andy's in CU is he?
Dave: The Constable one.

In other news, I went to my first opera yesterday. And saw a three-year-old boy fart. What did you do?