I look at this painting I did a few years ago and it is amazing how things going on around you sneak into your work. This bull dog was being walked by his owner right below my studio window. I grabbed my camera and ran down the stairs and photographed him. At the time I was watching this series on HBO called Carnival about a traveling circus in the Thirties. I loved this series and started looking at old circus posters. I had a set of old wooden croquet balls in my studio right by my easel that I would look at everyday. When looking at the photographs of the bull dog his legs looked like a wicket you would see in croquet and then I added a piece of an old circus poster behind him using the color permanent brown which I was heavely into at the time. So there you have it....deconstruction of a painting. The funny part of this is that I saw the owner months later with his dog and ran down and told him I did a painting of his dog and he didn't believe me, looked at me like I was crazy, and kept walking.....oh well I guess he will never know his dog was painted.
