In the late nineties, the New Orleans Public Library used to have a contest to write children's stories. It was more of a writing exercise for me as they gave you several items that had to be used in the story. I ran across my stories and decided to create new stories from the original title, Mr. Bane's Kids. Mr. Bane is a writer of Children's stories. His stories are influenced by his own kids, Kelly and Duane Bane and their friends, Andrew, Peter, Jazzmine, Karl, April and others. I thought I would perhaps use this blog to share some or part of the short stories to get some feed back. If I create an audience then I know that I'm on to something.
Some time this year I started creating what I thought the kids might look like. Sort of creating a brand if you will. Things got a bit out of control as I kept creating kids and then they became works of art. I am now condensing the number of kids, but since I have created my own digital stamps I now have a system so I can create as many kids as I want and paste them into the stories. I still have the originals that I can look at from time to time for inspiration. I purchased a magnetic dry erase board and I put the kids on magnets and now I can create the art work around them. I then photograph them and I can create different types of art for the stories and to sell separately.
Mr. Bane's Kids
by Dlonzo
Mr. Bane sat at the desk in his office, looking out of the window at the drizzling rain. He tried to think of something to write on the paper before him, but nothing seemed to surface.
"Daddy, daddy, I'm home," Kelly shouted.
Mr. Bane looked down from the balcony over looking the foyer.
"What is that ugly thing?"
Kelly looked up and smiled.
"It's not ugly. Is it? This is my art project. It's a fan."
Kelly ran up the stairs, Mr. Bane told her to be careful not to trip over the fan.
"What is it?" he asked again with a smile.
"I told you it's a fan. It is made out of verver root."
"I think you mean vetiver root."
"That's it," Kelly agreed with her father.
Mr. Bane thought to himself. Some people have too much time on their hands. Mr. Bane told her to hand it in her room. He sat back down behind his desk and began writing.
The next morning the rain continued. Kelly pressed her face against the window.
"Are you okay?" Mr. Bane asked.
"I guess. I hope the rain stops soon," she replied.
"We have plenty of time."
Mr. Bane told Kelly to make a list of everything they were going to do. She went up to her room.
When the doorbell rang, Duane ran from his room and leaped down the stairs.
"Slow down boy," Mr. Bane shouted.
"It's Andrew and Peter," Duane replied.
"I know who it is, just slow down."
Peter and Andrew went to Duane's room to play until it was time to leave.
"How come your dad is always home?" Peter asked.
"He works here. He is a writer," Duane answered.
"What kind of writer?" Andrew asked.
"He writes stories about children."
Mr. Bane knocked on Duane's bedroom door to see if they were hungry.
"No sir," they replied.
Kelly was almost finished her list and Mr. Bane began getting dressed.
Everyone sat in the living room waiting when the doorbell rang again.
(To be continued...)
(Acrylic on canvas, manipulated into black and white)
