Some books by Mara Baldwin

So I started working on a new series of drawings catapulted into existence by my recent musings on storytelling and stealing. I've decided that if I tell a story, it becomes mine, which doesn't negate it's simultaneous existence as someone elses. So I'm drawing books whose stories I feel have shaped me or that ignite some sort of memory for me-- but I draw them with my name instead of the authors name. It's a little gimmicky, sure, but I like that it's funny, that I'm still drawing objects, but that I'm admitting in the drawing that it's an act appropriation and a construction of truth. Right now I'm working on one that will be called Millions of Cats by Mara Baldwin. I'll draw that joke book I wrote about a few days ago too-- that drawing will be called The Super Joke Book by Mara Baldwin.

Here's where I'm still conflicted: I'm not really sure yet how far it can go-- for example, would a drawing called The Diary of Anne Frank by Mara Baldwin, be interesting or just offensive? I'm not sure. Because surely that book shaped me monumentally when I read it when I was 11, and the reason why it resonated with me is because it is 'just' a diary of a girl. However, because we know what happened to Anne Frank and 6 million others is why an appropriation of it might be offensive. It's an example of how my sameness and my otherness with someone elses story are conflicting. It's complicated.