caplan art designs
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Of poodles books beer and food for the heart
For weeks I’ve been working on two poodle portraits. The details of their hair and eyes has been such fun! It’s also been delightful to imagine what each dog is thinking about! My wife and I have had the honor of knowing these poodles’ humans for a very long time – so it’s been a…
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Short poems in the Reel world, letter soup and odd dogs
Imagination and poetry were on my mind this week. I’ve been thinking of our mental ecosystems and the landscape of our minds. So this week I did a portrait of a Shih Tzu this week for upcoming exhibits via Caplan Art Designs which I’ve titled “In Imagination”. Here’s a closer view of what’s on the…
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On using banned book lists as a buyer’s guide and other subversive activities
Book banning is a hot topic with me because I’ve been on the receiving end of bans. Those occurrences happened in Oklahoma over 10 years ago when I lived there. To name just one example, in 2008 I was to have a one person art exhibit at the Oklahoma State Capital. More than a few…
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Professional Dog, Gallery exhibits in a pandemic and being Santa’s elf
There are 3 major art gallery exhibits in my life but more on that in a bit. First here are this weeks 3 dogs from The Professional Dog. Here’s a larger image of each dog portrait with the book text beneath. In times past I went in person to local exhibits especially when my work…
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The Professional Dog book on Storyberries, Thanksgiving and holiday box details
Lots to share: The Professional Dog is out in print and as an ebook on Storyberries! In a bit I’m sharing my creative process for my holiday box project. But first, because people tell me they’re enjoying it, I am continuing to feature 3 dogs from The Professional Dog per week so here’s this weeks……
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Professional dogs, books, Thanksgiving art and some about the holiday box!
Here’s news about The Professional Dog and all of my projects that I couldn’t talk about in my last posts! First, this weeks sequence of dogs. Below is a closer look at the artwork of each of those dogs with the book text beneath. As I mentioned in another post I tend to work first…
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Professional dogs, artist books, unmentionables and hamburger
My new childrens book, The Professional Dog, is progressing nicely. I’ve been thinking of this as a fine art dog portrait album inspired by the idea of the 19th century parlor game The Minister’s Cat. My book concept is an excuse to talk to my friends about their dogs and see if I can do…
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Professional Dogs, puzzles, holiday box and figure ground relationships
I got my Covid19 booster shot and thought of the relationship between individuals and community. That brought jigsaw puzzles to mind. Quite a number of people were getting vaccinated the same time I was and it got me to thinking of how each one of us fit into the local community in some interlocking way.…
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Professional dogs, box project, studio tour and veggie lasagna
My childrens book The Professional Dog progresses along! Below are three in a row. Do you see how the colors in one piece leads to the colors of the next? For example the background color on the left dog becomes the shirt color on the middle dog… My use of color is one of the…
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Professional dogs, box project, cards, chats, contrasting books and soup
I’m steadily progressing on my children’s book “The Professional Dog”. Here are three art pieces together so you can see how the colors flow from one piece to the next. This project will be both a book an art exhibit. So each piece needs to both work with the others and stand alone. My last post…
