Invaded!

Maps.  I mean, they're cool and all, but do you really need a weak replica pasted onto a stretched canvas?

...what we need here is some intergalactic inspiration:

 

There.  MUCH better. 

Mais, Oui

Stock art seems to favor looking...French.

...ish. French-ish. Because apparently anything written in French=classy. But we don't want to write anything too advanced...we just write the stuff we learned from watching Amelie with subtitles...

...or taking that one semester of French 101 in college. 

...I know these things.  J'ai dit oui to my Invitation au monde francophone:

...for one semester before I went to Spain and decided to study Russian.

Whatever.

Anyway, I came across this beauty the first time I went to Ross in search of hotel art. 

"White wine from France."  

Because we're classy, we wrote it in French.

So I ask, why stop there?

What is a good picture of French stereotypes without the actual wine...

 ...the eiffel tower...

 

...and smoking?

Being me, you knew a dinosaur was coming, too:

Some of you reading may ask,

"Bridget, why do you do this?"

You know what I say?

"Pourquoi pas?"

P.S.

The people in my French 101 book are TOTALLY drinking wine.

...totally.

Where We're Going, We Don't NEED Maps!

For whatever reason, maps seem to be popular stock art.  I get it; they're bland (and thus non-offensive), (moderately) informative, and (sometimes...although rarely) interesting.

  

Whenever I see these dull pieces of stock art, I can't help but think of this classic dialogue from Arrested Development:

Narrator: Thanks to the family’s largesse, Buster has studied everything from Native American tribal ceremonies... to cartography: the mapping of uncharted territories.
Michael: Hasn’t everything already sort of been discovered, though by, like, Magellan and Cortés, ...
Buster: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Michael: NASA...all those folks?
Buster: Those guys did a pretty good job.

 So...how to make a map interesting?  For me, the natural conclusion was to take my dino buddy...

  ...to the final frontier:

...'till next time, may all your hotel art be interesting...or at least fun to mock.

xoxo, bridget

 ***

P.S. Just in case the reference in the title eluded you:

You're No Monet

...

...BUT I AM A FAIRY PRINCESS!!!111!!!