We're All Mad Here

("We're All Mad Here" 2013, Photoshop)

I'm sure all you Alice in Wonderland fans out there are probably wondering,
1. Since when does the cheshire cat have batwings?
2. What the f@#k is this cat perched on?

1. It's called artistic licensee so shut up. My cheshire cat could totally kick your cheshire cat's ass.

2. To answer the second question, I should mention that for the past three years I've worked at a department store,  as a cart-pusher (I take shopping carts form the parking lot and bring them into the store). Like most stores, the one where I work has metal corrals in the parking lot where responsible patrons can place their empty shopping carts once they've finished using them. In order to help customers find these corrals (not that anyone ever bothers to look for them) there is a tall metal pole attached to each corral with a blue metal box on the top. The box has a white decal of a shopping cart printed on each side, like the one shown above.

As you might have guessed, I get very bored at work. Pushing shopping carts in and out all day gets sort of dull after 2 and a half years. So I tend to day dream a lot while I'm "working" and one of the things I often like to imagine is something popping out of one of those blue boxes (they're the perfect size for a jack-in-the-box, if not oddly decorated) or some sort of creature sitting on top of it like a gargoyle, or some massive bird of pray. I tend to imagine the latter more often due to all the flocks of seagulls and crows that actually do perch on those boxes from time to time.

I think about random creatures and things a lot while I'm at work, and there's something incredibly satisfying about seeing something I see every day in the real world being portrayed in an illustration. It makes the idea seem very real.  Like if I could go into my imagination this place would really be there, some twisted version of the department store with random creatures running around. It's a very exciting feeling for me and I would like to make more illustrations based on real places like this in the future, ones that put an imaginative spin on settings of my everyday life.

I originally called this piece "Shopping Cart Cheshire Cat" but "We're All Mad Here" makes a lot more sense considering this is based off of where I work. Between the obnoxious customers and the stressed out employees, it really can be a madhouse in there, but with less tea and more nonsense. I'm just happy I get to work outside.