Chicken scratching

Over time it will leave marks

I woke up thinking about chickens and perceptions. So over a series of mornings during each day's breakfast I handwrote my thought about human perceptions and I drew a chicken making scratch marks.

I used ink and a light layer of gouache…

… on another morning I added more …

… and then added more …

…until I felt it was finished (see also the first image in this post).

During another early morning I woke up thinking about the recent protests supporting democracy¹, about chickens and about how small marks add up over time and make a big difference even when we don't feel or perceive the impact immediately or directly. The responses we do see to our efforts say more about the people responding than about our efforts.

I combined all of those thoughts into a micro-story which I hand wrote in my notebook during breakfast…

… and began illustrating it during the rest of breakfast … (yes, my observant readers, I'm finishing the page in my sketchbook shared in my last post!²)

Let me type out my handwritten story (with some edits) so you can read it more easily and at the end I'll include the finished illustration:

After several dark cold rainy days during the middle of one the longest nights of the year the chickens met with their representative to the sun, Mr. Rooster Louder. The chickens said things like “There’s not enough seed!”, “ We're cold!”, “Straw is getting scarce to make nests with!”, “There’s not enough light to watch our chicks by!”.

To each statement Representative Louder puffed out his chest, strutted and quietly said “cockle-mumble, cockle-mumble, cockle-mumble awk.” He didn't wish to anger the farmer or awaken the farmer's dogs and that was far more important than what a bunch of hens and baby chicks needed. So he strutted, puffed out his chest and waggled his big red coxcomb while muttering in what he supposed was a statesmanlike way.

After some time of this one hen stood tall and said to the other hens “Look at him! He's all cockle and no do, no doodle-do at all! He's nothing, no power against the night, no representative of the day, no strength in service to the ideals of seed, warmth and light for all chickens equally! Let's vote him out of the barn yard!”

“Yes! Yes! Let's! Lets!” exclaimed the other hens.

The hen who had spoken turned to Representative Louder and said “It’s quite possible, sir, that you have fertilized your last egg unless you actually do something about these horrible egg-laying conditions!”

“Hear! Hear! Yes! Yes!” exclaimed all of the chickens.

Suddenly Representative Louder began to wish to keep his status and position in the barnyard more than he wished to avoid angering the farmer and his dogs. So he flew to a high place, took a deep breath and bellowed at the top of his lungs “Cocka-Doodle-DO!!!”

The chickens cluck-clucked in applause. And the warm sun rose. And the farmer came with seed and straw. And a new day began.

And below, for the fun of it, is a wordlaying chicken mug (link here) because we lay our words in hopes they'll be good eggs and hatch a good future. Whimsical art by me of course.

I hope you have an eggselent weekend!

P.S. I got notification that this newsletter is now number 41 in the category of Art and Illustration!!! Wow!!!! Thank you everyone!!! I love you too!!!!

Thank you, to all of you, for your ongoing patronage and support of my work! I appreciate every one of you! If you're a newly paid subscriber please feel free to access or download any or all of the 24 ebooks that I've written and illustrated which you can download and access anytime you wish from this index page.
Thank you again for being here!!

1. The resistance is delivering results!

2.