Hideous Progeny

“hideous progeny...the offspring of happy days”:

(And free of hydrogenated oils)

Today is the first day of Inktober, a yearly "art challenge" where one is supposed to make a drawing in ink every day. I embraced it last year mostly as an opportunity to make a series of drawings that were NOT on napkins.  Not that the napkins are not executed in ink, but it's not traditional ink. 

The drawing series last year ended up being mostly about my then fairly recent travels in the world of "alternative" health and wellness filtered through my longer term interest in representing fragmentation and discomfort with the body. 

I managed to scare away at least 500 followers a week on the Daily Napkins Instagram account during Inktober 2016. The drawings were definitely not popular with those who were expecting to see images of pugs dressed as batman rendered on napkins

I've been having trouble identifying a theme for the year's drawings. I am afraid they will be no more popular than last year.

For the moment, I think I will just offer the information that this is a drawing of my younger son and a Jiffy Pop Popcorn foil. The term "Hideous Progeny" comes from the introduction of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. She writes at the conclusion: “I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. I have an affection for it, for it was the offspring of happy days when death and grief were but words, which found no true echo in my heart.”

I will try not to entirely neglect the napkin enterprise during the month.