Illustration Friday - Shadows

When you're the big sister you can totally puppet master your younger siblings into putting on shadow puppet plays behind white sheets. These plays, robbed of Tony awards, can be performed for the forced entertainment of other family members all the time. The puppets don't have to go together. You will most likely make a long and ridiculous antiquated script in which they all meet at an outdoor market in Paraguay.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my siblings. Growing up we weren't allowed to watch television, we had a beach for a back yard, and because my dad watched Disney's Peter Pan, perhaps too often as a young child, we grew up in a "nursery". It was an idealistic upbringing for a future children's animator and illustrator.

I am not going to lie. I know the blind confusion that comes after being sucker punched while reading the Babysitter's Club on your bed. I know the seething rage that comes with stolen missing Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers. I know the sting of being falsely accused of breaking your sister's arm because she threw a box of kitty litter at you, causing you to chase her with the intent of breaking her arm -- before she ran into a tree and did it herself... a different sketch, a different time.

Luckily, I also know the delight of being told in strictest confidence about grade school crushes, first kisses, bad grades and deep scary fears. I know what it's like to have friends that are actually life long.

When I think of shadows, I recall late night runs on a strip of white sand in the moonlight and I think of our Peter Pan nursery. At times you would half expect a boy to show up with a need for a little sewing ;)