Chippy

The wildcard.

This portrait was in no way planned, unlike the others. It was just one of those things that needed to happen RIGHT. NOW.

Technically, I’ve been working on Aussie Buns for the past…29 weeks. He’s actually halfway done, but somewhere along the line, I got bored and/or busy and completely forgot about him. I remember bringing him to Denver to work on on the flight, finishing his left cheek, and then stashing him to be forgotten. I know this because when I went to get the stuff to do Chippy, there he was, staring out of my embroidery bag accusingly.

Well, look, we all have our priorities, I told the half-finished piece. Chippy needed done right quick, otherwise I would it would never get done.

Here’s something else you might not (need) to know about me: I have ultra crappy people memory. They’re like reverse-polaroid. The image is clear for the first few days, maybe a week if I think real hard about it, but it starts fading pretty quickly, and I am left wondering if the details I’m remembering are made up or actual.

If you should ask me what, say Chippy, looks like, I honestly couldn’t give you details. It’s not that I don’t pay attention, I guess it’s just information my brain doesn’t feel is necessary to retain? I can give you the overall look: curly hairs, a beard, some eyes, and a nose, a mouthbag for sounds to come out of…but beyond that? His hairs’ on the top, the beard’s on the bottom, the eyes are somewhere in the middle of the face area, above the blowhole, with a long tube in the middle for breathing. More than that? I mean. Eyes are eye-shaped, right? Am I an asshole for not knowing what his eye colour is? Probably. Nobody’s perfect, right?

Yes, I’m aware I could have worked from a photo, but I surprisingly do not have any. Which, I know, shocking coming from me. I don’t understand it either, if it helps? In the meantime, this embroidered portrait is as close to one as I’ll get.

Oh and one more thing: Chippy is not Chippy’s real name. Another terrible habit I’ve picked up is to nickname everybody and everything, but like, not to their face or anything. It’s more of a mnemonic device, it contains lots of information about the person…except for what they look like. That would make too much sense.