Cookie Monster Has Style

"Balance" 2.5 x 3.5" colored pencil on drafting film.
Copyright 2007 Maggie Stiefvater.
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I was watching an old episode Sesame Street today with my toddlers and there was a segment wtih Kermit the Frog and Cookie Monster. Kermit the Frog asked Cookie Monster to say a poem, and right before Cookie Monster started, Kermit said, "And remember, not a poem about cookies."

Are you freakin' kidding, Kermit? That's what Cookie Monster does! That would be like putting Bill Gates in a talent competition and telling him "nothing with computers." Or like commissioning Rothko and telling him "nothing abstract." Or getting the Pussy Cat Dolls for your wedding band and saying, "Nothing slutty."

Us artists might take a valuable lesson from Cookie Monster. In fact, I still have a lot to learn from him. He's a muppet, you say. That's where you would be wrong, gentle reader. Cookie Monster is a brand. Let's break it down, shall we?

• His name. Right off, you have a guess at what Cookie Monster's passion is. Not only is it useful for remembering what his deal is, I'll bet that people typing in "cookies" in a search engine find www.cookiemonster.com high in the rankings.
• His passion. It's cookies. That's what he wants. At one point during his poem, he talks about blueberry confections and pie, etc., but you know that really, when it comes down to it, it's cookies. In point of fact, he may love pie as much as cookies, but maybe "Pie Monster" sounded obscene or he realized that being "Pie and Cookie Monster" diluted his message.
  
• His subject matter. It's always cookies. Or leading up to cookies. His poem started out all about galoshes, but because we knew Cookie Monster was about cookies, we not only knew there were going to be cookies in there somewhere, but we were delighted to find the galoshes full of them.
  
• When we want cookies . . . we know who to go to. Yes, we might not want cookies all the time. And the whole population might not want cookies. But there's a definite part of the population who will want cookies sometimes, and another part that will want it all the time, and they all know where to look.
  
• Cookie Monster never changes his name to Treacle Monster or Landscape Monster or Abstract Monster, not even for a break. Maybe he does it in the privacy of his own home, but to the public, his cookie front is united and steadfast. (this is the one I need to work on.)
  

Do y'all get the metaphor? Or do I need to make it into more chewable pieces?

Oh, for an example of one of my successful artist friends who has taken Cookie Monster's life lessons to heart, check out Gordon Leverton's site. We all laughed when he kept turning out works in his narrow niche. And then we cried as he started to sell . . . a lot.

Find your cookies. Stick with 'em. That's my goal for the month of July. That and become Maxfield Parrish.