Alice and the Mouse Boots

Alice never intended to cry an ocean. But now that it's inevitable, the rodent seems to understand.

Pool of Tears is a surreal, aquatic rendering of emotional scale and strange friendship. Adapted from John Tenniel’s original 1865 illustration in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this design captures one of the book’s most hauntingly odd moments: Alice, mid-transformation, adrift in a flood of her own making, swimming beside a somber, long-suffering mouse.

Each panel floats in moody watercolor: gentle greens, spectral grays, ink-black mice fur, and the pale gold of Alice’s flowing hair. The outer panels show the pair swimming parallel—emotion and reason side by side. The toe panels isolate their faces in mirrored downward gaze, as if you’re stepping into their shared melancholy. The back heels echo the flooded backdrop, each showing just a tail or trailing lock disappearing into current.

The full design moves like a looped fable—part dream, part regret, part rescue attempt that never reaches shore.