Ceci N'Est Pas Magritte

This blog post is more for my own benefit than anything else - I just finished thumbing through The Portable Magritte (the book is actually on wheels), and there were a few pieces that struck me as particularly amusing. One of the things I love about Magritte is that he's probably better at being funny and shocking than he is at painting, which gives me hope that my art may one day be successful.

The Cicerone, 1948
The Human Condition (La Condition humaine), 1933
This is a Piece of Cheese (Ceci est un morceau de fromage) 1963-1964
The Hesitation Waltz (La Valse hesitation), 1950
Lyricism (Le Lyrisme), 1941
The Seducer (Le Seducteur), 1951
The Dominion of Light (L'Empire des lumieres), 1961
The Conqueror (Le Conquerant),1926
Helmeted Sausage (Saucisse casquee), 1929
The Lovers (Les Amants), 1928
The Red Model (Le Modele rouge) 1936
The Blank Signature (Le Blanc-seing) 1965
The Treachery of Images (La Trahison des images), 1926
Golconde, 1953

What if Hitler had been a manatee?

It's been a while since I picked up my brushes, but my dear friend Mo was so keen on getting a Laura Original, preferably depicting his favorite animal, that I temporarily diverged from my appliance theme and created the above piece (with a little research and help from images.google.com). Added inspiration came from work as I was filling out the paperwork to bring on a contractor named Manning Man. Although most likely hated by his parents, he has a very memorable name, and one that I would definitely assign to a manatee, had I the opportunity to do so.

By the way, when doing this painting, I had to fight the almost uncontrollable urge to paint a little Hitler mustache on him. Wouldn't that be cute and horrible all at once?