{File By EX} - Zombie-land

"The government taketh and giveth away," according to File By EX in this month's dispatch from the Canadian Civil Service. Grant was in charge of the 'giveth'. "Grant did grants. He worked in a small agency in the System that gave out taxpayer money. Grant’s job was to read the applications and approve, or not, the requests which would then be confirmed, or not, by the Minister." Depending on the minister, the money tap could be tightened to barely a trickle or, it could be opened full throttle. Grant remembered granting money during the spending-spree days for a group who wanted "money to set up a chapter of the Zombie Research Society (http://www.zombieresearch.org/) in Newfoundland." For Grant this seemed appropriate, for in his words: "zombies and the government had a lot in common." I chose to show a Zombie sitting down and signing the application forms with Grant hovering behind, ever helpful; with the one hand the Zombie reaches for the sack of money however the other hand that signs the papers has decayed and fallen off: a sign that this application is pretty weak. Artwork was done using Chinese Ink sticks, brushes, commercial inks, on watercolor paper.For other installments of File By EX visit: http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/exfiles/index.html