A Game of Trap and Mouse (Short Story) | A Mixed Media Art Project

That Malcolm was cunning frustrated the Harrison family. Especially dad who vowed for a year to rid their home of the pesky varmint. Contriving numerous ways to catch the mouse kept dad up nights conceiving elaborate contraptions.

This wasn't Malcolm's first brush with that game of trap and mouse. He'd tried to live peacefully with the other family a year ago. His only objective now was to live and let live while protecting his family.

Weekly tutoring of Malcolm, Jr. and his other children on trap avoidance never bored the father. He loved cheese. So did his wife and children. And he vowed they would never go hungry.

So the game was afoot.

Malcolm searched online and viewed various tutorials on the art of navigating the nooks and crannies, including the garage.

To Malcolm's dismay, dad had discovered his ingress and egress routes. Holes were plugged. Pest control powders were laid. And traps were set.

All dad needed to do was wait. If the poison powder wouldn't surprise them as they rounded the corners and stepped in it, Malcolm or his family would surely spring one of the mousetraps.

Days turned into weeks that turned into months. Still no results. Beyond frustrated, dad decided to call in a professional.

Overhearing the call, Malcolm knew it was time to relocate. He gathered his family and shared the sad news. During the night, they packed up their belongings and quietly escaped the house.

At the edge of the curb, Malcolm nodded a somber goodbye to the home that had housed him and his family through the scorching summer and harsh winter.

But now, their destiny lay elsewhere.

For my current mixed media art project, the vision was to create a mouse trap. I thoroughly enjoyed designing this project. First, I chose a beautiful yellow colored pure fractal I designed in the advanced version of the fractal rendering program, Apophysis 7X, to build the cheese contraption. As you can see, another pure fractal substituted for the mouse tail. My short story explained what is happening in the scene.

^{Pure Fractal titled "Kaleidoscope" ~ Pure Fractal titled "Colorful Flower Stem" ~ Pure Fractal titled "Hot Seat" ~ Mousetrap}

I then utilized Canva to blend the different type images. I leave with you my procedures which begin with a blank, white canvas. I then add layers of elements in accordance with my upgraded Annual Pro Membership that includes tools to remove backgrounds, resize, filter, duplicate, and reposition items as required. Perhaps of all the tools, the ability to remove backgrounds thereby creating transparencies of the images is crucial to the blending process.

Below is my completed project:

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my mixed media art project.

SOURCES:
a) JustClickindiva's Footer created in Canva utilizing its free background and images used with permission from discord admins.
b) Unless otherwise noted, all photos taken by me with my (i) Samsung Galaxy 10" Tablet, (ii) Samsung Phone, & (iii) FUJI FinePix S3380 - 14 Mega Pixels Digital Camera
c) Purple Butterfly part of purchased set of Spiritual Clip Art for my Personal Use
d) All Community logos, banners, page dividers used with permission of Discord Channel admins.
e) Ladies of Hive banner used with permission of and in accordance with the admin's guidelines
f) Thumbnail Image created by me in Canva.
g) "Flames." What is Apophysis 2.09. https://flam3.com/

¹ What is Stable Diffusion? StarryAI.Com. Online at: https://starryai.com/stable-diffusion