"Table Top Tussle" from my Gecko Art Series
So, I was sitting in a small outdoor eating area one day in Waikiki. The restaurant itself was small, I don't recall even seeing it the last time I strolled by there. However, an idea for a painting was born there one lazy Saturday afternoon.
I had come in from a day of beaching it and thought I would have a late lunch and a weekend Mai Tai treat! The drink was not the best Mai Tai I had ever had, but it did have a nice couple of Maraschino cherries on a colorful plastic sword! As I sat there, feeding myself a cherry with that tiny sword, pondering the way the light shone through the palm tree above, my mind started to recall my childhood, when I would go out to Tiki restaurants with my parents. To my little sister and I, these same little plastic swords would come on our fruit punch and parent's tropical drinks! We LOVED THEM! We fought for them...and best of all...fought WITH them, too! As I sat there pondering the past, I noticed a couple of Hawaiian Geckos playing on a lava rock retaining wall near my umbrella table. As I have shared in the past, all it takes are a few things to get my imagination going! There is a STORY here...and a painting!
A game my sister and I would play with these little swords was the highlight of our night out. We both wanted as many cherries as we could get, being typical kids, so we invented a game to "win" them! Sis and I would take a plastic sword each...holding it in a pinching grip. Then, on the slight opening, groove formed on top of our hand, between our thumbs and index finger, we placed a cherry! We would pretend our hands were little pirates, our swords held out to duel, each with a bright red cherry for a head! Then, the fighting began! Just like swashbuckling miniature pirates, we clicked our swords, lunged and blocked...trying to find our target and send our opponent to Davy Jones' Locker in a spatter of cherry juice and glory! They were not "pretty" fights! One of us always took a jab in the palm or fingers and our parents were all too willing to end our epic duels by ceasing our weapons to stop my sister's crying and my devilish behavior! It mattered not though...these battles were traditions and you could hear my parents sigh, each time we would be at a place where those swords were brought to our table...and the gleam in me and my Sister's eyes would returned to fight, yet another great battle in table top history!
So all this churning in my brain created a fictitious story for my Gecko series...
I could imagine what those geckos on the wall might do, given these perfect little props to act out their own little scene that even Errol Flynn himself would envy! What better motivation too, than to have a shy, fair maiden awaiting the outcome, and loving every second of the attention! Even a curious Madagascar cockroach hiding under the umbrella table stops its quest for crumbs to come up "topside" and enjoy such a display of chivalry and "nano-nonsense!"
I am certain my waitress was wondering how just one Mai Tai had her customer starring at the table alone that day, twirling plastic swords between his fingers and mumbling something about "touche'' and "Surrender or die!" Haa haa. But so is the wonder of imagination! I hope you will enjoy my little painting called "Table Top Tussle" a bit more now. Oh...and should we ever meet for a Mai Tai, and those swords be present...please don't think me crazy when I raise my weapon and whisper a tiny "touche!"
Warmest Aloha, THOR