hand

my class stood around one of the homework drawings that were posted up. it was of a hand holding up a tiny ball with the tips of its fingers, almost as if it was pinching it. it had a humorous look to it in that the hand was abnormally large and the fingers were nice and squishy looking - like marshmallows. in fact, we were all standing up around it because our instructor had asked a student, "what is your favorite drawing here?"
he replied, "i like the one with the fat fingers."
"ah, why do you like this fat hand?"
"because the hand is so large that it looks almost disproportional."
someone else chimed in, "yea, the fingers are so short too... not just fat."
instructor nodded, " hm, it does make it interesting how fat and short the fingers are, doesn't it?"

a few more exchanges followed and we'd all somehow agreed that the hand was exaggerated and could not possibly be a truthful reflection of a person. then, it got inevitably awkward and uncomfortable in the class when the instructor asked the artist to reveal them self. alas, the artist was the only 4'11'' and noticeably rotund figured girl in the class. we all gasped in silence and continued to stare at the drawing.

awkwardness is fantastic.

and so was this girl who managed to mock the teacher and the entire class. after another ten minutes of exchange that went on about her fat hand drawing resembling the style of a prolific south american painter, the instructor asked the girl, "is that what you intended to do?"
she replied, "exactly, that's what i was going for."
"really?"
"no."

(drawing above by Andrew Rae. My favorite artist of the week. Check out more of his work here: http://www.andrewrae.org.uk)