The cosmonaut.
I suddenly had a bad urge to fill that frame on the wall that just looks like it desperatly needs a painting in it. What else would a frame be there for?

Armed with a small brush I normally would use for inking comics and a bucket of leftover kitchen paint, I set out to give Yuri Gagarin an altar in my house. First man in space counts for something. I would have done Laika , but I always weep at the thought of how terrified that dog must have been (and her death is gruesome) so I can't really as that would permanently depress me.

Yuri knew what he was getting into - an essential deathtrap - and had the brass balls to do it. You can judge a country by the balls of their space program. Russian cosmonauts fly up in tin cans, land on land, and get a bottle of vodka shoved into their hands by the welcoming comitte. If they survive. In gender fairness even girls get to risk their lives [and die depending on if you belive the real audio files at lostcosmonauts.com] - and this long before the US had women astronauts.

dont try this at home. trained professional in a closed track. ;-) or at least, ask your landlord. They tend to get pissed about this sort of thing. Go figure.

to me it makes prefect sense to start things in the middle. when I was a kid I started all drawings at the bottom. Made me draw things all out of proportion for years. If you start in the middle the distance to both ends is equal and it doesnt feel like you have far to go. Suddenly it was five in the morning and my neck hurt so I had to stop and sleep.

...course you cant see what it is yet. I'm not done yet.

Monday night. My brush broke. Forced break until I get a new brush. Got this far. Terribly annoyed with the brush breaking. Almost used a makeup brush instead. But that would have been silly. Can you see that it's Yuri's teeth and microphone in his space helmet yet? I got myself a new brush. Actually two. And

just so you don't think I haven't used them...

I did get a lot further. See now he has a helmet and headphones and all that. And I have green paint all over my hands and shirt as I kept leaning into the part that hadn't dried yet. [klutz!]

photo: Miklas Njor

The cosmonaut is done.
Sunday 2002-April-14. Really, I should've had a party! It was on April 12, 1961 that Yuri went to space.