Well, it happened. For the latest guinea pig painting at When Guinea Pigs Fly, covering popular figures in our culture and history,...WGPF "went political" (DUN DUN DUNNNN!), and the amount of political discord that resulted was actually not so bad! Turns out guinea pig people and others who appreciate cuteness are by and large a peaceful people (but we already knew that, right?).
In case you missed it, last week's vice presidential debate here in the US between Senator Kamala Harris and current Vice President Mike Pence was one for the books. I, like many, did not have the stomach to sit through every moment (I respect the issues at hand but am v sensitive to watching people arguing and being sarcastic/cutting toward each other), but if you've been online you'd be pretty hard-pressed to have come through the last week without hearing about the fly that landed on Mike's head (oops!), and Kamala's epic response to being interrupted when she turned with a smile and uttered "Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking..... I'm speaking."
Now, lack of sleep will do a lot of things to a person. The pandemic has turned many of us into strange nocturnal creatures that are losing all sense of time and space without the typical anchors of our otherwise busy lives pre-pandemic. I was lying awake at 2 or 3am the other night, just about to drift off to sleep, when a tiny thought trickled in and I heard it. "psst. Hey. Hey it's me, the creative side of your brain that's been repressed for eons while you try to scrounge up enough serotonin to function. Hey...yeah it's been awhile! But whatever we have no time for small talk. Get this: how hilarious would it be to paint Kamala Harris as a guinea pig... she'd be so cute! haha...wait.... WAIT. Know what rhymes with speaking? SQUEAKING. OMG OMG OMG A GUINEA PIG KAMALA HARRIS BUT SHE SAYS I'M SQUEAKING asdf;lksdj;fkljd" and that was just about all it took for me to barely sleep that night.
I bolted up a few hours later like it was Christmas morning, hauled out my old dusty paints and cleared some room at the table, and by the evening, Kamala Harris peeg was born. I have no regrets.
Whether you're for or against Senator Harris' policies, I think we can all agree that as a guinea pig, she's pretty dang cute. You can put her on your wall here!