To Pierce a Mockingbird

I illustrated this poor little guy right around the time I had experienced my first substantial heartbreak. That event was also paired with the period I was starting to adult, experiencing things like moving to a big city for the first time and starting college.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was subconsciously representing the loss of innocence that I was feeling. I see birds as one of the purest forms of life, full of cheerfulness and energy.

The pain I felt (however childish in retrospect) was the equivalent of a bird being pierced by an arrow mid-flight.