Lovely wabi-sabi to this almost Halloween feeling piece. It's a subtle form of assemblage. A kind of collage in materials heavier than paper. The little regal lion rules the roost. Yet those eyes make us think it is a magical Kingdom. There's delicious wear to this and it looks stained in the most 19th century way. Obviously it is a modern Fantasia on some older form of folk art country painting. I did not have chalk to test the slate but it certainly appears to be a normal piece of slate when examining it from the front and the back and when applying the fingernail to it. This is a hand-painted original and it just has the most wonderful surreal sense of being a mock window. A little trippiness and a little supernatural. Why is that cat surveying our souls with those color gradients in his eyes?A great piece of folk art all around.