Every now and then, someone will say "Hey, I really like your print _____, but can you tell me what it means?" My first inclination is to say either you get it or you don't, but that seems kind of rude. Chances are, if you like it, you get it and you don't need an explanation, but I'm guessing that maybe you want to make sure that what you're thinking it means is what it "really" means?
Truth is that most of these prints have a few different meanings, even to me, and then even more when I ask others to explain to me what they think it means. What you think it means is the real meaning. Really. And this is my favorite part of making the work that I make - hearing the stories created by other people explaining what it means to them!
I love the way Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor at the New Yorker, explains it on this blog post, where I discovered this E. B. White quote that says it all: “Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.”
So if you still want me to explain it to you, go ahead and ask... but keep in mind that you probably already know what it means.
