RobArt Penguin

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite animal?

View all responses

I’m not formally trained, but I’ve been doing artwork all my life. For a while, I was a member of a suburban art gallery. There I was known as the “Penguin Man,” for my affinity in producing penguin art. I don’t know if I was the Penguin Man because of my own personal interest in penguins. When I was a young adult I did an oil painting of Emperor Penguins in the Antarctic, based on a calendar picture. From there friends and family presumed I liked penguins and gave me penguin gifts. Soon, I had penguin themed sheets, shirts, figurines, ornaments, etc. My sister liked my penguin painting and asked me to do one for her but bigger. I painted a similar landscape with over a thousand penguins. The painting measured three feet by four feet. Many decades later the painting remains in her house. The giant penguin painting added to my family mystique that I was a penguin person, and the gifts grew. By the time my kids were little, I had been the penguin man a while. I used to do clay projects with my kids, and naturally I made them penguins. My wife thought I should do art shows because like my figures so much. Ten years of shows later, I had made over 4,000 penguins. Are penguins my favorite animals? –my original penguin painting still hangs in my dining room. Must be.