Tiny Stories

#1: Two people walked down the street uttering an unintelligible language intertwined with shrieks and gasps of laughter.  Others looked on, confounded at the abnormal duo.  And yearned for the same. 
 

#2: I didn’t want advice or instruction or opinion or wisdom or joking or telling or touching.  I wanted a listening ear.  And he gave me his.   

#3: Frodo and Sam, Han and Chewie, Marty and Doc, Jerry and George, Harry and Ron, E.T. and Eliot, Kirk and Spock, all got nothin’ on me and mine.

 

#4: “I’m confiding in you…  I liked The Phantom Menace.”

“Dude.  I loved that movie.”

“We’ve created a circle of trust.”

“Yes, indeed.”

“So, can I borrow your LOTR extendeds?”

“Never.” 

#5: Everyone had one but me.  Apparently it was invitation-only.  As I wondered how to get home without calling my mom in front of them all, I realized he stayed behind. 

Artist's Statement

When attempting to come up with stories, one of the first sources I tend to go to is my friends.  And I don’t mean asking them for a story.  I remember all of the stupid things they used to do, and the ludicrous things they used to say and from those memories usually comes a pretty decent story.  So, when I had think up a unifying principle for my 5 tiny stories, I did this yet again.  However, the random stories my memories provided were individually funny and a moral could even be attached to each one, but they seemingly lacked a unifying principle or theme.  Until of course I realized that they all were derived from my friendships. 

I then proceeded to represent my feelings of friendship in a few different ways, by comparison, by actual story, by definition and by example.  My mom has a small book entitled Friends that isn’t too far from this.  It’s a collection of short poems, sayings, pictures, etc. about the idea of friends and friendship.  It’s a nice little book, albeit a little cheesy at times.  After being reminded of this old book, I tried my best to stray from the potential cheesiness of my tiny stories by having each one rooted in some truth.  Whether or not I succeeded in that, I’m not yet aware because to me each story is not generic, but a real instance in which I experienced friendship.  Each story was a time in which I was grateful for my friends, or they were grateful for me. 

On a different note, I obviously don’t possess the ability to draw in any capacity, but regardless I tried to make my illustrations match my stories.  They are utterly simple, possibly comical, maybe sad, and hopefully at least a little happy, because in my mind that’s what my stories are.