Summer Forever

I would give you summer, forever
if I could stop the change of seasons with a word, with a sword
if I could hold the heat of August in my heart
if December did not make you beautiful as well


I guess undertones of how I'm feeling always end up in my stuff, and sometimes they surprise me with how they come out. Wolf Lichen was like that too, I was surprised with how creepy it turned out- it had this creepy/innocent/inviting thing goin on that I also see paralleled here. I don't know why the tree is so summery and yet it turns to thorns and roses. I don't know what that says about me. I know I took this emotion of wanting summer and explored it... I know this time of year I'm starved for heat and green and life.. but there's more to it too. Summer is freedom from trials and work and strife, and its exploration, and time with friends. In a way the characters in the piece are two sides of what it means to be a kid in summer- that's why they're dressed as pirates- the carefree fun, adventurousness of it. And then there's the aloneness of contemplating growing up (its something I think furries relate to a lot, that duality, because that innocence and childlikeness is what we of all people are trying to hold on to the most).

The stuff in the description there is a bunch of different meanings really, alot of influences and references I made with this. Charles Vess's work on Instructions by Neil Gaiman for sure was the main influence on this. That and summers in my backyard as a kid. The creek in my backyard- it was an ocean, an island, a mighty river- tractless wastes and steaming jungles and forests and seas and a thousand summer days. It was everything. I dammed it, diverted it, bridged it, floated it, swam it, hunted it, cultivated it, conquered it, let it conquer me and take me where it would. It was everything, it was my world. The further I get away from it the older I feel. I drew this and was remembering that freedom, in the dappled light from those overhanging leaves.

I guess the words within the piece itself are a little bit of that emotion too.. Its an adult in me saying I wish I could give you, give me, that innocence, that freedom, that life- Its me saying I wish I had more of it. That's what grasping at summer really means.. summer as my life right now, summer as a metaphor for where some relationships were that are more winter now.. and knowing I cant really change them any more than I can change a season. Or my innocence, or my age, or anything. I guess sometimes we grow up



pen, ink, prismacolor marker, colored pencil, watercolors
Summer Forever © Jasper Hedren 2010 - DO NOT COPY OR DISTRIBUTE