One Man's Trash...

Pat (of Single For A Reason blog) has come up with a challenge to see what w'all can do with a discarded - yet very photogenic - paper bag. As she put it, "One man's trash is another man's treasure type of thing".

Since my creative juices are a bit on the murky side these days, and I am amongst the finalists in the Olympic sport of the procrastination (I persoanlly think I deserve the gold medal!), I decided to act fast while it was still hot and fresh from the email.

So, here is my humble attempt at it.


The first thing that came into my mind when I saw this bag was a cheery Smurf making a fashion statement.

Maybe he's tired of the everwhite Phrygian cap.

Maybe he wants to fly and save the world from the roaming Gustav with his mighty umbrella (you're a bit late for that, little fella!).

Or maybe he just wants to escape reality and feel like Superman for a while.

All that - with a bonnet made from a discarded paper bag, with some extra pieces used for birdies to accompany him.

Oh, and one mighty umbrella, of course.

Ain't recycling wonderful?

So - there. Done, with fun and Photoshop.

Paper bag courtesy of Pat, Smurf courtesy of a free image online. Photoshop courtesy of The JohnnyB and TexieD. Blogger courtesy of Google. OK, enough of the credits!

One thing this reminded me of was my favorite illustration by Mordillo, that used to hang in my cubicle during my early hi-tech days (the poster, not Mordillo, alas).

I think it's titled 'The Non-Conformist'.

Sure enough, my manager at the time advised me to take it off, as it was too much of an attitude statement...

Well duh!

Needless to say, I left it there until it was completely faded.

Like many of Mordillo's bitter-sweet creations, it's the kind of image that makes you smile at first sight, but the more you look at it, you realize how disturbingly true it is.