Moroccan The Casbah!

© 2014 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

It's been awhile since I've painted a self portrait. This is from an assignment a couple of years ago. A self portrait with some sort of headgear. The original painting came out ok… Actually, it was pretty crummy. So I decided to redo it. I'm much happier with this go round. My inspiration was the Orientalist art movement of the 18th-19th centuries.

There is nothing political about this painting. I've just always been intrigued by the Middle Eastern culture.

Thanks for looking!

- Kyle

"It Ain't Cool Being a Jive Turkey" Happy Thanksgiving!

"Mother, the bird's a bit tough this year. You reckon?"

I was asked to do another holiday comic for Utah Valley University's newspaper, The UVU Review. It depicts one of the many uses of the greatest invention of the 20th century. . . The Rubber Chicken. 

"Run free dear turkey, run free!"

The history* of the rubber chicken is quite fascinating. The first rubber chicken was invented by Klaus Schäfer, a German watch maker in New York City, 1907. Originally meant as a food product to stave off world hunger. But through the conspiring of man and irate poultry farmers, this was not meant to be. In 1933, while touring the zoology department at Harvard, Albert Einstein saw one of the first prototypes of the rubber chicken. He found it to be one of the funniest things he had ever seen. 

Dr. Einstein brought it back to New York and suggested its use to his dear friends, The Marx Brothers. Although Harpo and Gummo were skeptical, Groucho, Chico, and Zeppo loved the galvanized pullet. Harpo eventually recognized its appeal. But Gummo could not be persuaded, and ultimately left the group. 

The Marx Brothers routinely used it in their act. But they never forgot Albert Einstein, who collected royalties for every laugh the rubber chicken  received.

Thanks for looking
Cheers!

"Run free pretty bird, run free!"

*I may have fudged most of the facts in this history. . .