When Erin swings through the untamed jungle, it's not just the big white guy with bad English in a loin cloth that hollers in approval--ALL of us wild men do!

Erin is an outdoorsy kind of person that feels as comfy in a tropical setting as I do chained to my drawing desk, and that makes nothing but great sense considering her dad is a zoo keeper. As a matter of fact, after she showed me a photo of herself hugging a particularly blissful looking orangutan buddy name Elok (a name George Lucas will undoubtably rip off from Erin for his next Star Wars film), I just knew we had to incorporate the li'l feller in her portrait. Unfortunately my attempts at showing him clasped around Erin's neck were so lousy that I won't tarnish my already rusty reputation by showing it here. He looked like a stretched-out version of E.T., the poor critter.

Like most jungle princesses, Erin's interests include chocolate raspberry truffles from Godiva, bar-b-que, football (especially the players themselves), beer, and cooking (which she's a champ at). I don't know about Tarzan, but what red-blooded American dude *wouldn't* want to get with a girl with such stellar interests? Beer, bar-b-que and watching football in a tiger skin loin cloth?? :)

This has to be my most time-consuming piece of big girl art to date, and I'd like to think the effort was well worth it. It was sure a barrel of monkeys creating it, and working with a fun and friendly doll face like Erin made it even more painless.

Don't forget the sun blocker and the bug repellent, Miss Vines! It's like a jungle out there!

Date of entry: 3/03utdoors".te of entry: 9.02