Wednesday, February 22, 2012

With the Greatest of Ease

With the Greatest of Ease, acrylic, 24 x 30
Elizabeth W. Seaver

Clythus and Beatrix fell in love on a bicycle.

At first it was just a job.  A dream job, you understand, but a job, nonetheless.

All Clythus had to do was to keep the bicycle balanced while riding backwards so the little starlet didn't fall on her feathered head.  They had been hired individually by the circus manager, Mr. Hammond, and had been paired to perform in the pre-show act, entertaining customers who arrived early under the big tent.

I could almost do this in my sleep, Clythus thought to himself, stifling a yawn.   

He really was just a glorified warm-up act, and hoped one day to thrill audiences on the high wire.  For the first several nights they'd been performing in Toledo, while he'd pedaled, he'd made a grocery list, thought of all the people whose texts he needed to return, and tried to remember where he'd put his Kindle.

While he mooned, Beatrix pirouetted, kicked, jumped and generally made the audience swoon with her cuteness.    Clythus, mentally occupied with planning a more efficient way to pack his trunk for the move to Akron, suddenly noticed a bobble in the act.  Beatrix tilted towards him, nearly poking his eye out with her adorable umbrella.

Instinctively, he threw his wing forward to steady her on the narrow bicycle seat.  Whoa there, little lady, he said in his best John Wayne accent.

Their eyes met and held.

Thank you, Clythus, she breathed.  I should have wrapped my feet before the show.  My bunions ache something awful.

And that was that.  Clythus fell.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Asa and Hepzibah

Asa and Hepzibah Go for a Spin, collage/acrylic, 24 x 24
Elizabeth W. Seaver

"Oh, dear," thought Hepzibah.  "Another hill." 

She decided not to turn around at that moment to give Asa her dirtiest look.  She had to keep that bike on the path and concentrate on not losing her lunch.

As a kit, she could just hide at the bottom of the basket when the going got rough, but now that she'd gotten so much bigger, there was nothing for it but to hang on tight to the weaving with her claws and pray that Asa didn't say, "Look, Ma, no hands!" 

He already had taken his feet off the pedals.

If Asa had to clean pellets out of his bike basket at the end of this ride, it would not be her fault!




Thursday, February 9, 2012

Zorah

Zorah to the Rescue, collage/acrylic, 6 x 6 x 3
Elizabeth W. Seaver

Is it a bird?  

Yes, it's a bird.  

Is it a plane?  

No, it's a bicycle.  

Is it Superman?  

No, it's Zorah.  Zorah to the Rescue!

The citizens of Avianopolis sleep better at night knowing Zorah is on patrol.  Her swift, silent cycle creeps up on those with evil intentions.  Before they can complete their nefarious plans, she doffs her velvety cape and whirls it around them.  Their evil thoughts dissipate, and they are forever changed.

Then, giving the former miscreants a regal nod, she pedals away towards another crisis which requires -- Zorah to the Rescue!

She naps a lot.



Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Orville

Orville, acrylic, 24 x 24 by Elizabeth W. Seaver


"Racing bikes is like flying," Orville always said.  After he entered his first actual race, he decided he'd better add, "Except when going uphill!"

But still, he did love the whistling wind and the pleasant burn of his leg muscles.  As he approached the finish line, he rose up off his seat, crouched over his handlebars and pedaled for victory. 

Friday, February 3, 2012

Esmeralda

Esmeralda, acrylic, 24 x 24
Elizabeth W. Seaver

"What a perfect day for a bike ride," Esmeralda thought.  As she pedaled her sleek gray bicycle down the sidewalk, she felt the wind whistling through her feathers.  For a moment, she worried that she'd lose a feather from her jaunty, new spring bonnet, but the day was too splendid to waste even one minute of it worrying about a little thing like that.

Just that morning, her father presented her with a new golden bike horn which sported a squishy bulb on one end.  When she mashed the bulb, a lovely aoogah-squeakah-squeakah sound burbled out.  She and her dad spent a pleasant half hour together while he showed her how to attach the horn just under her handlebars.

Now, she zoomed towards Runella's house to aoogah-squeakah-squeakah at her as she rode by.

Runella would be so jealous!