Herion- the Velvet Underground

Heroin.
You think, female hero? Then you think...no. That's not quite right. (I mean, that could be the stuff that the heroine was on to save the world...but heroin does not equal heroine and that's that!) But that's just the heroin part.. (and how I thought of Alice, who is a hero in Wonderland).

I love the name "The Velvet Underground​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​". It makes me think of moles in mauve velvet waistcoats and spectacles a-rest on their noses scurrying through their doily infested chambers which are their homes. And with that, I think of Wind in the Willows. And childhood. And my all time favourite Disney movie from way back when, Alice in Wonderland.

This is photo from my bedroom. Tiny tiny chair with a tiny book with a dusty red leather cover, gold trimmed pages and black and white sketches of the original Alice In Wonderland. The point? General love and adoration of Lewis Carroll. He is an inspiration for weird thinking. And we all need more weird in our lives..

So back to songs and meanings and cool band names. I had originally done a drawing of moss, and the ground beneath it, put it upside down so it was the velvet (moss) under the ground.

It was terrible.

Luckily old Lewis, ever faithful, was sitting on my chair...

The velvet part is the ribbon in Alice's hair...and she's underground because silly thing fell down that rabbit hole..

And as for the whole heroin thing-I am reminded of when Alice drinks a bottle of unknown stuff because the label told her to. Similarly, she eats that mushroom from a hubbly-smoking caterpillar with millions of feet.
That sort of naivety is often how people get into drugs, that and pressure. Pressure from the general cool, no exact face. A label on a bottle...

(Lastly I have done two cover arts. The second with no banana skin. This is the alternative cover, which had a banana peel sticker on top of it, and you'd peel it off.)

I love this page.