Weird Fishes

I've been working on painting this one ceramic tumbler for days now. I finally finished it today. Now I just have to bisque fire and glaze fire it. I hope the colors don't wash out much after glazing. I'm half tempted to leave the outside unglazed, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be comfortable to hold, since I didn't sand it before I started painting.

I should just explain - when I was a teenager, I thought smoking was cool. I know how dumb that sounds, but I did. I would smoke alone in my room and watch the smoke curling off my cigarette, and I thought it was beautiful. I could almost watch a cigarette burn down without even taking a drag, just for the curls of smoke. Ah, the whims of a budding artist.

I've never really grown out of feeling like smoking is cool, though I've quit smoking myself. I burn incense instead, these days. But it's not the same as blowing smoke rings, or letting smoke curl out of your mouth slowly as you exhale. (Please don't take this as me advocating teen smoking, or anyone smoking. I don't advocate anyone doing anything.)

I found this amazing picture of a girl with a dreadlock mohawk, and I thought it was beautiful, but I also always think mohawks remind me of fish fins (and conversely, my fat goldfish seems to me to have a very flowy 'hawk.) And so, mohawk girl expels goldfish from her mouth like smoke.

If you'd like to see the work in progress, check this out.