How Trippy Frog Found Its Rain
Jams2blues (James Lee), with Anna Lee
The rain in Trippy Frog started with a background that dried weird.
I had already drawn the frog in graphite and colored pencil. Before doing the rest, I sprayed fixatif over it to prevent smudging. Then I added a water-based permanent black marker to the background, and the marker sort of faded and pooled into droplets. When it dried, there was this cloudy haze behind the frog.
As an optical surrealist, I immediately went to weather. I decided to make it rain.
That changed the scene. Fine lines of rain pass in front of the frog and over the leaf beneath it, with the cloudy background still visible behind its head. The frog has all these bright colors around its dark spots, but now it is also sitting out in the weather. The strange way the marker dried became something I could draw with.
The original was a gift for Anna's manager. During the later stages of Anna's pregnancy, her manager had been so kind about unexpected appointments and weight restrictions. Her grace and understanding went above and beyond. That empathy and compassion for women and pregnancy was something Anna and I wished existed everywhere.
I wanted to make something for her with my own hands, to show how grateful we were. That is the part of the drawing's story you cannot see just by looking at the frog. Before the rain, before the finished colors and all the little details, there was someone who had shown kindness to my wife.
Anna remembers the sixteen hours I spent making it. When she talks about this piece, she puts it alongside the other things I have made for people over the years: songs to cheer someone up, food prepared around someone's dietary restrictions and preferences, poems and doodles given to family.
"His attention to detail always has a way of making you feel special," she says. "The hours he spent creating these works of art depict his dedication to making others feel heard and seen more than anything."
I talk about the background because that was the surprise while I was drawing. Anna talks about the gift, and the reason for spending those hours on it.
"It's not just art for James, it's a way of connecting to other people."
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