Swatting Flies

Ok, this one was a lot of fun to do... I enjoy the colors and simplicity of the subject matter. It gives the feeling of a laid-back summer day, with a strange cartoonish guy just sitting around, swatting the flies that are buzzing around him away with his handy-dandy fly-swatter... (after several mishaps with toxic fly sprays, and devices such as ultraviolet-light traps, sticky fly traps, and baited fly traps, this guy has learned the hard way that the fly-swatter is the most economical control method for the occasional fly). Once he even tried swatting them with a hammer, but that resulted in a catastrophe of such epic proportions we won't even go into here...

The common housefly, Musca domestica depicted here, doesn't attack, (although it may seem like he's being attacked by them), but instead of being just plain creepy, my depiction portrays these insects as a fanciful delight!).

"Who's afraid of flies, not I!", says he. Oh yes, he is definitely the "King of the Castle", and "Lord of the Flies".

He sits on his rocking chair (throne) that truly defies the very laws of physics! Apparently, he also doesn't believe in wearing shoes; although his pink socks are kinda cool, I must admit.

What little you see of his house is also pretty cool and interesting. Again, very colorful, with a purple door, and roof and multicolored window.

So, there he sits in his blue jeans and a tee shirt, and a fly has landed right smack dab on the middle of his pointy nose, so the big question remains: "To Swat or Not To Swat"?

The materials and media I chose to create this piece are acrylic paints (with some slight texture paste; especially in the yellow background) on canvassette, and basically, I drew the sketch out first, then went over the outlines with black paint, and then laid down the texture paste where the yellowish background is; heavy in some areas, and lighter in others, in order to give a fuller texture effect.

Then, I laid down the yellow color on top of the texture, adding in lighter and darker areas, and a tiny bit of red and black smears as well, for extra texture and depth.

Finally, I painted all the other sections with different colors, and there you have it.

I chose this as my subject matter simply because I was in a very lighthearted mood, and wanted to convey something whimsical, colorful and fun that kinda told a funny story, with flies, so to speak, and to show that insects aren't always creepy and/or disgusting.

I have initialed it in the lower right hand corner, but also signed on the back.