So the Nips Are getting bigger is a whole series, I think maybe 20 or more of these little bottles. I found the bottles at a market and I got really excited. I thought, oh, Captain Cook, I'll be able to tell a really good story with an image of Captain Cook. And when I saw them, I didn't realize that they weren't just a statue, that the hats come off and they were like little whiskey bottles or rum bottles.
When Cook first arrived on the boats, so did the alcohol, and often the First Nations people would get paid with alcohol instead of money, which wasn't very helpful. So alcohol isn't helpful for a lot of people, but it definitely wasn't helpful for First Nations people. So I painted every single one different, and on this one, I've got Captain Cook with a little pirate's eye mask, and I've got some feathers because he's on First Nations country, on Aboriginal land.
And that's a connection to the culture, the feathers. On the backs of them, there are skull and crossbones. And so every single one in the collection are different.
