I Thought He Was A Pig

“I Had oft heard him spoken of as being an ardent patriot, a humble citizen, and a God-fearing man.  I thought he was a pig.”

Oil on panel  (GPS  40.748883, -80.534978)

This was intended to be a painting of the old stone bridge but it looked rather empty and needed someone crossing the span to finish it.  How it came to be a pig I cannot remember but I suppose a pig who wears a tricorn hat is just as likely to use the bridge as he is to wade the stream.  Perhaps he is a soldier deserted from the Continental Army; an untenable situation for a plump porker given the chronic starvation the army endured.  Either way, there’s nothing to think about or consider – it’s simply a pig on a bridge.  It would be a likely bridge for a troll and would probably be occupied by one were it not for the remote location and lack of regular traffic.  A troll hiding beneath such a bridge as this would starve to death. Trolls are meant to be fat, disgustingly fat, and tend to drool, and breath wheezily, and wipe their mouths on their arms, and burp so loud it scares the birds from their roosts.    At least that’s the way they were in one of my favorite childhood books, “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” a classic of goat literature.