Monster from the Forbidden Pond

When I moved to Mercer Island, through no fault of my own, I ended up living in a beautiful cabin on the waterfront. I was there for three and a half years. In case you don’t know, Mercer Island is one of the richest, most exclusive communities in the US, second only to perhaps Beverly Hills. I say through no fault of my own I lived in a waterfront cabin because I wasn’t rich. It wasn’t my money nor my influence that got me there. Long story short, I met a girl in Boston. Her parents wanted her to live closer to home so they made their rental cabin beside their own palatial waterfront home available to her for a reasonable price. As we were an item at the time, this entailed dragging me across country. On Mercer Island, if you get a group of friends together, all of them in their 20’s and 30’s, as I was at the time, it was an absolute guarantee that more than half of them are millionaires. This had nothing to do with their parent’s money, on Mercer Island, they just taught you how to network, how to succeed, how to lead...how to invest in the right stocks. It was a whole lifestyle that, even after more than three years, I couldn’t acclimate to (see my previous “Bread Winner” painting illustrating my fears of moving there and becoming a responsible adult. ) I had long hair, a leather jacket and a fu manchu style goatee. I just didn’t fit in. Living on the waterfront gets you thinking about water quite often. I wondered about the creatures that may have lived there. I imagined myself as the monster...sort of like Frankenstein’s monster...misunderstood, perhaps even lovable to some degree, but misunderstood nonetheless. The girl I followed cross country, her name is in the text as well as her dad’s and also all my friends from back home whom I missed.

Measures 18" x 24"