The Corn Maze

THE BARRACUDA

I decided to create a painting for the Tampa Bay Lightning's 2nd Annual Open Call To Artists Exhibition.  The theme was to make a work of art (drawing, painting, or sculpture) that was themed with the city of Tampa Bay and/or it's famous hockey team, the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Seeing as how I have become quite the fan of the team, as well as growing up in Florida, I decided to take part. 

After doing some research on marine life indigenous to Tampa, I felt compelled to create a barracuda loyal to his fellow hockey team.  But what does the giant barracuda eat? His rival, of course!  After doing more research on their rival team (which really means asking Marc lots of questions), I decided to paint a Florida Panthers fish.  I created a Warmouth Sunfish, another fish indigenous to Tampa, who is/was a loyal fan to the Florida Panthers.  He was in the wrong place at the wrong time!

About a week after I submitted my painting, I got a call back saying my piece made it to the final round.  Pretty exciting!  It means my barracuda will hang in the lobby of the grand ol' Tampa Bay Times Forum stadium lobby for a year!

Painting a fish in such an odd, long, and skinny size meant I needed to find a frame, fast (yikes!). Believe it or not, up to this point, I have never had to make my own frame because I would either a. find a gem at a thrift shop or  b. barter with a carpenter friend (Gavin, I still owe you a bottle of whiskey).  I decided it was time for me to man up and do it myself.  I went to Home Depot and found some cool crown molding with wood insets, bought a box saw, and went for it!

Incidentally, in the middle of all of this I got food poisoning

(from eating fish, go figure)

Making the frame may have been harder than making the painting.

Okay, making the frame was definitely harder than making the

painting (especially in my condition)

 But I finally pulled it together!

Voila!

B  A  R  R  A  C  U  D  A!