When it came time to start this year’s batch of holiday ornaments, I admittedly felt fairly uninspired to start until I started playing with the idea of animals in sweaters and birds in glasses. Before I knew it, I had sketched out 12 ornaments, 4 round paintings, and 7 square paintings. As I painted the personality of each animal started to come through in the way their facial expressions translated into paint. They started to feel so relatable. It became difficult to resist thinking about the details of their lives. Naturally, this led me to write brief bios for each. Absurd? Maybe. But we are them. They are us. And I’d argue that absurdity is something we all need more of.