Wondering what comments to add to this illustration I started questioning whether my assumption that everybody knows the tortoise and hare fable is actually true. Maybe everybody does but with people from diverse countries and cultures on Hive here is a very brief summary. A tortoise and a hare had a race. Really, they did. The hare was so understandably confident of winning that it stopped for a nap but overslept and woke too late to catch the tortoise before it crossed the finishing line. The moral being that slow and steady wins the race, although personally I would not recommend taking too much guidance from such an unlikely story.
We have turtles and hares in our garden but my attempt to test out this tale did not work. The turtle refused to come out of its shell and I was too slow to catch a hare. The moral being that I should leave the poor animals alone.
The smarter hare in this illustration has at least guaranteed a draw.
I particularly like the face of the tortoise with its expression of frustrated toil. It provokes a different feeling in me than the original fable's intention. One that is perhaps closer to home for many of us. It's about the slick and richly-endowed living comfortably on the backs of us poor laboring tortoises.
Artwork available at my Redbubble shop.
