"Mole Patrol" (8x10", digital)

"Mole Patrol" (8x10", digital)

I created this image as a gift to my brother on his birthday this year. The title might sound odd, but here's the back story…

As kids, my brother and I had an assignment on Saturday mornings. My memory makes me believe that it was always on a Saturday morning because we never, ever, ever wanted to be pulled away from Saturday morning cartoons. Especially not for this chore.

The task was this: We were asked to hunt around the backyard to find and bag the remains of the dead mice and moles and whatever else my brother’s cat, Rascal, had (shall we say) …swiftly transferred to the spiritual realm. Rascal was the mightiest of hunters. A tomcat if ever there was. Strong, muscular, and generally commanded respect from every creature that dared to enter his territory. He would walk the perimeter of this territory without fail. Rascal could chase stray dogs away with a single glance (I may be embellishing here, but I don’t want to believe that I am!)

At any rate, my father called this assignment “Mole Patrol”. And so, to honor my brother’s birthday this year, I decided to paint an image of Rascal to honor them both.