This Banner is in direct response to the ZEBRAS Banner. A chance to Right the Wrongs of the previous year. I really wanted to do a BIG BAD SCARY IN YER FACE BOY BANNER - I'm so glad they went with THE GATORS instead of THE LIZARDS or something.

Now you can't think of Gators, especially in Sports, without thinking of Florida. I always think of Oranges when I think of Florida, which might seem odd given I'm in and from Southern California. Orange makes a nice back drop color to POP the Green Gator off the page.

My son wanted some water in there which made sense in a Gator-Florida-Swamp kinda way. I'm a bit disappointed with the Water. To me it looks like when you're on an early morning flight and you rise above the fog to look down on the cloud cover and watch the sun rise. It's really just a matter of adding some more stark highlights to the waves and the problem would be fixed, but nobody has said anything and the Picture Day deadline has passed, so...

Speaking of "Nobody Has Said Anything"...
Nobody has said anything about the IZOD logo on the Soccer Ball. The reference is either really stupid or really obscure- well possibly both; I suddenly feel akin to Dennis Miller; whom I, for one (and maybe the only one), miss on Monday Night Football.

The hardest part of doing this piece for me was the - letting go and crackling the Gator. Allowing myself to paint crazy sporadic DARK lines across the surface of the Gator was an internal struggle. What if I messed up? Would I have time for a repair and repaint? TICK TOCK TICK TOCK the Deadline appoacheth TICK TOCK TICK TOCK and then I remember the Peter Pan CROC who swallowed The CLOCK - TICK TOCK

And eventually you just have to go for it! Have some FAITH - and just paint.