It's taken me a few days to figure out what to write about this. I've checked back about 10 times (probably more) to make sure that it's real. A little while ago I entered Tea & Sympathy (above) in the ACMI Tim Burton competition, and it has made the cut for the final 14!
It kind of feels like the Christmas morning when you open your presents and find that, this year, your parents actually got you exactly what you wanted. Just knowing that Tim Burton saw my picture and liked something about it makes me very happy. That might be silly, but right now I really don't care.
This image started with the names of the two characters. I was listening to one of my Split Enz cds while I was painting and the song Sugar and Spice was on. Tea and Sympathy is half of a line from the song, and this time when I heard it I thought to myself, I wonder what they would look like as characters. The result from that wondering is the painting you see before you now.
