"The Pool of Tears"
While painting I started thinking back to my first exposure to Alice, and it was this book. Beautifully Illustrated by Marjorie Torrey and published by Dandelion Press it was a "flip" book with "Peter Pan" on the other side. Peter Pan was one of my favorite stories while Alice on the other side was someone I wasn't quite comfortable with.
I admired Alice but her adventures made me nervous, as I grew older I started to realize that being an only child had some influence on my feelings about Wonderland. Alice stands alone, no prince or brothers to rescue her.
I actually felt daring when I flipped that book over to visit Wonderland. I had a lot to learn from Alice, she keeps her wits about her and only cries once that I remember, the pool of tears. The thought of tears so large you could swim in them like a salty sea is right up there with the disappearing cat in my childhood imagery. So I finally had a chance to paint my own "Pool of Tears" and it was like going back to visit an old friend.
She will be available in my Etsy shop
