Here’s a new painting in my “reading and books in art” series. I confess that I love printed dictionaries, thesaurus’s and puzzle/game related books. In my art studio resource shelves I have 8 dictionaries, 3 thesaurus’s and 5 puzzle/game related books. Art idea gold-mines in my opinion. Naturally a Boston Terrier would consult one of these books…
“The Arf Thesaurus” by Clancy – 16 x 20 inches – acrylic and gouache on board —- image copyright 2019
The puzzle in the painting is actually work-able – at least somewhat – if you could get the Boston Terrier to move his arm. It was fun to imagine a puzzle related to sounds (words?) a dog makes.
If you look in the upper corner of this painting you’ll see that I’ve spoofed another painting that I did earlier.
“Good Morning” – by Clancy – 11 x 17 inches – acrylic and gouache on board – image copyright 2019
As I’ve worked toward this exhibit theme of reading and books in art I’ve become aware again of my love of words so I’ve also been experimenting with abecedarian poems, nonsense poems and made up words. This is in conjunction with thinking about constructing some artist books related to my upcoming reading and books themed art exhibit.
Still noodling about this concept of nesting-ideas-within-nested-ideas I’d mentioned in my last post. We’ll see where it goes.
And yes, I love it when I take the time to sit and work a crossword puzzle. I’m not up to The New York Times puzzle level yet. Someday perhaps. I’ve known two people who could do the Sunday NYT puzzle in ink. They impressed me enough with their level of education/smarts that I started on the bunny-slope level of crosswords. They inspired me reading more widely too. I like to think I’ve gotten a little better at puzzling since then.
Do you like crossword puzzles?
I like the “idea” of crossword puzzles, but don’t have the patience to do them:)
This whole piece is so charming. I love the dog’s expression. it seems to me is deep in thought about a solution to a puzzle and is looking past the viewer of the scene. I love also that you have incorporated one of your own paintings in the background. I used to do lots of crosswords when I was younger but got out of the habit. My Dad does a challenging (though not cryptic) crossword most days while having a cup of tea and he likes to ping me messages to pick my brains.
Thank you for your kind comment!! I was aiming for that “trying to think” expression on a dog. Helping your Dad with a puzzle would be a fun way to stay in touch! Sometimes my wife I and share the crossword – I’ll do 5 clues then she’ll do 5… and so forth until the puzzle is done. I joke saying I leave the hard clues for her… 😉
I think yours is a good strategy. 😀
Lol !!!!!!!