Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2004SYR02
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Poem Inspiration Location
Onondaga Lake
poster information
Description
Onondaga Lake
Shoreline; a nesting hotbed.
Make way for goslings
The inspiration for this came to me in the spring, when the County puts up those signs along the parkway: Watch Out for Baby Geese. You see deer crossing signs, and you see horse crossing signs, but to see one for baby geese—it's different.
Whenever I see those signs, I hope that people do slow down. I mean, goslings are so darned cute. It's always a shame when they grow a little older. They're just gangly and awkward, like a teenager. They're not a cute fuzzy gosling anymore. And as full adults they can be nasty. When I go biking along the Erie Canal—man, they're intimidating!
I live in Syracuse, so I've gone to Onondaga Lake Park ever since I was little. I go with friends. We like to roller blade, play some Frisbee and just hang out. Sometimes we get to see the geese hanging around. I love watching them and their little goslings.
I love animals, and since I really like doing character design, I thought it would be fun to illustrate a bunch of goslings each doing different things. I tried to give each of them a different personality, but make them seem like a family. Sort of comparing mother and child to geese and goslings. You have the mom smiling and watching as the goslings are wandering around, goofing off. It's that kind of relationship: goslings hanging out at the park just as families of people hang out at the park.