I’ve been in a constant battle lately with this woodchuck over who’s got the rights to till the soil out at my country gardening spot.
These kind of epic battle scenes and other such Military art
are one of the oldest types of art in developed civilizations, not that this battle has been very civil.
The first hole I found I dumped a bunch of stones in and packed some dirt firmly over so I wouldn’t trip when I was mowing around the garden. I brushed the sweat from my brow with my cap and figured I’d shown him.
My cap is really my only regular uniform in this war. I know that depictions eventually evolved from battle scenes to portraits of the victorious rulers and then to recordings of military uniforms, but my cut off jeans or sweatpants are just too shabby to be considered a formal uniform.
The next hole I stumbled over had been abandoned by the woodchuck ever since my brother threw some old corn stalks around it which attracted some rather angry bees.
I’m just too embarrassed to show that battle scene. I swell up something terrible.
Late last fall when the bees were inactive I opened that hole and cleared the area then filled it back in with some rather heavy clay soil.
I thought I had a handle on the situation but as of late I believe he has a leg up on me.
He popped up right in the middle of one of my carrot rows this spring.
I know the stance of the character representing me in my little colored pencil battle scene echoes the man in the white shirt of Goya’s The Third of May 1808,
But I’m not giving up yet. I WILL prevail!!!