2021-Current
After the cupcake fiasco in our previous art collaboration, Zimmie wanted more input in the final product. Zimmie started with a painting on brown butcher paper. Zimmie declared it finished and titled it Tiger Mountain. She wanted me to draw her in the center of the mountain, so I scanned in the painting and Zimmie chose the photo of herself she wanted me to use as reference. At the time we were working on this, Zimmie was very much into listening to the soundtrack to Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. As we were listening and singing along to the song Chilly Down for the 200th time, she asked me what “bad hep” was. (It is a line in the song). I told her that it was like a dark cloud or presence that hung over something. She pondered that for a bit, and said “like Vultures?” -- She requested that I add the vultures to her drawing and we chose a photo reference I had from one of our many visits to the Zoo. We overlaid another of Zimmie’s color pencil drawings and signature over the image to add some more of her mark making. She was much more proud of this work, and we titled it “Bad Hep over Tiger Mountain”. I feel it is a balance between my new found worries over mortality after becoming a parent with her innocence, humor, and fearlessness.