This Reminds Me

Archive for October 8th, 2007

Keith is a big e-bay buyer/seller so boxes on our front porch are common.  But a box from Nickelodeon?  And addressed to Lois?   The whole family was standing by for the opening.

Turns out Lois is one of 50 second-place winners in the Nickelodeon Anime contest.  They run two contests – one for live action cartooning, and one for still  anime.  She’s one of 50 #2′s in the still anime category.  Each contestant submitted drawings and a story as an idea for a new anime cartoon.

Along with a 3-D T-shirt, viewing glasses and notepaper, she got this stuffed art case….

…with a nifty Nicktoons Network Animation Festival wood cut logo on the exterior.

Lois told me about her entry because she needed a catalog mailing envelope and postage.  I’m very interested in her artistic talent because I have absolutely none.  In my 20′s, I even read and performed the exercises with “Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain,” and all I got in return was charcoal and ink stains on my hands.  I have no artistic talent.  Neither does Keith.  Yet she – effortlessly – cranks out sketches all the time, on everything – church bulletins, notebook paper, grocery lists – you name it, she adorns it.

One wall of her room, filled with her favorite notebook sketches.

So here are drafts of what she submitted.  I was impressed enough at the time to scan them.  I wish I’d scanned the all the final versions, but I’m a bad mother.

Meet Jamie, a teenage girl supposedly born without a left arm (mystery looming).  She’s lonely and teased often at school.  Mom is dead; father is not supportive.  (Note:  Their entire lives, my girls have played games revolving around dead mothers.  Like with dolls, “Let’s pretend the mother is dead.”  I watch my back around here, I tell. you.)  Jamies uses music composition – like her “Cloudy Melody” tune - for emotional release.

Meet Lieirose (lie-rosk), Jamie’s guardian angel who looks like a teenager but is thousands of years old.  He often appears in a cloud.  The Council (other guardian angels) is angry with Lieirose for failing to protect Jamie at birth (more mystery) and because he’s appeared directly to her (big no-no.)   The Council has branded Lieirose with the “Mark of the Traitors.”  They’ve also covered his mouth and nose to muffle screams during punishment.

Jamie in a final sketch, which I did think to capture – in her handmade prom dress with a corsage from Lieirose, which he offered “from a secret admirer.”  She attended the prom dateless but a bit cheered by Leirose’s gift.

As Lois told me the story, I was more and more engrossed.  How did Jamie lose her arm (really?)  Is her mother truly dead (sigh?)  From what does she draw the inspiration for her music?  Whom else has Lieirose protected, and what was their fate?  And the father – why is he so disengaged?

Unless Nickelodeon chooses to develop the story, we may never know.

Lois needs to win a few cash prize contests so she can buy her mother – her living mother – some really nice gifts, don’t you think?