Well, this is my big vanity project. There's two pieces of it I'd like to explain:
1) I've had this idea floating in my brain for years. Only recently have I had the time and gumption to make it work. The whole thing began at the Calgary Stampede. To avoid the crazy fees for parking a car near the Stampede grounds, I took the bus which is both economical and better for the environment. However, buses get stuck in parking lots much more easily than cars do, and there was a whole load of us passengers hot and tired ready to head for home after the gates to the fair were closed. After forty-five minutes of staring at each other trapped on public transportation, we started up some small talk. How about that weather? Where are you from? What do you do?
People were genuinely interested that I was from Vancouver. As for what I do, well, that tends to run along a sliding scale of reality, more or less. I realized that I was stranded in a bus, dressed in my finest cowboy duds, which amounts to jeans, a silver belt buckle, a western-styled shirt, and a cheap black cowboy hat. Add to this the glasses and a paunchy physique, and I know I'm no picture of a cowboy. So this flashes into my head:
"Wall ma'am, shucks, but I'm jest an' old mouse wrangler. I keep one of those fellers on my desk an' I wrangle him from sun-up to sun-down." I pantomime clicking the mouse, and then I do my very best John Wayne swagger (I've since tried it in a mirror at home. It's not a bad swagger, as long as I don't do it more than once a year).
After that, I kept alive the idea of wrangling mice. I sure wish I had cards to hand out on that bus. I look at this design and while it can easily be made into a card, I'm wondering if I have the courage to pass it around outside of Stampede.
So, 2) I've been on an active mission to make my work seem wittier. I like working on projects that make people smile and laugh. There is a small niche market for this kind of stuff, and I've been following it as best as I can. It's not always an easy sell for clients, although I suppose anyone who likes this card is someone I with whom I can collaborate. My wife laughed at this and thought mouse wrangling was cute, but now that I look for it, I think she done hid my black cowboy hat...
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