While working on this painting I was chipping away at some Ritz Crackers with a pointy knife to see what one would look like bitten by a parrot. They made a crumbly mess and I realized a parrot would get crumbs everywhere so I sprinkled cracker crumbs on a makeshift mannequin in my studio to see how they would land. I’m usually very neat when I work so making a mess was liberating. Needless to say I ate a lot of Ritz Crackers while painting this piece. I thought it would be funny to put in a pirate with a couple of blue Hyacinth Macaw feathers in his hat, waiting on the platform for his train. He’s loosely based on Keith Richards’ character in Pirates of the Caribbean because I love The Rolling Stones.