House Mouse and Memories

The House Mouse mice never cease to delight me. I especially like the single images, because they have so many possibilities. The two used here are Contented Mudpie and Mice-tro, Monica wielding the baton. The whimsical music notes are from the Mardi Gras Frogs collection by Third Coast.

Techniques used: stamping, embossing with ep, watercoloring, masking. For the “dream” clouds, I cut a shape from a sticky note and sponged around it.

The little mice remind me of one of my favourite childhood comic books, Mary Jane and Sniffles. Sniffles was a mouse, and to become his size, Mary Jane would say, “Magic words of poof, poof piffles, make me just as small as Sniffles,” She would shrink to Sniffles’ size and off they’d go on adventures.

These stories and others fed my imagination, and with dolls, small plastic horses, and stuffed animals, I created a world of adventures. The Raggedy Ann and Andy stories, in which dolls and other toys come to life at night, were another favourite.  One night, I placed some of my dolls next to my bed and whispered to them that I knew their secret would never tell, and then begged them to wake me at midnight. Of course, they never did, but I still believed, telling myself that they just didn’t trust me enough. I’d hate to tell you how old I was when I stopped believing in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.

As I grew older, these beliefs and fantasies were undone by reality, but a sense of wonder and a penchant for weaving tales has never left me.