$20
Item#: 2011SYR11
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Syracuse snowflakes
meet their fate on the blade of
my shovel of doom
I enjoy writing and I occasionally submit my work to contests, such as “Bulwer-Lytton” and “Imitation Hemingway.”
I was intrigued by the haiku format, so I decided to give it a try. As for the subject of the poem, I thought that a winter weather theme might be appropriate.
I didn't have to give it that much thought something to do with the weather I suppose.
The humor of this haiku appealed to me. It just made me laugh when I read it.
I'm from Boston, so I'm familiar with snow. I've always weirdly enjoyed shoveling. I remember it being especially fun as a kid, when your parents send you out the door, when the snow is so high that you can barely get out. Then it's not a chore, it's just playing.
I didn't know how I was going to do the illustration at first. I started by looking at people shoveling, and trying to find a fun, energetic way to depict that. I looked up pictures on Flicker, and I acted it out myself, and I also looked out for real people. It's hard to find energetic poses, because people hunch over. But then I found this fun sweeping motion that's very dynamic, and I really enjoyed trying to portray that with the figure.