Mr. Doodle's Dog

POST-PUPISM

OBJECTS OF AFFECTION ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR

Sammy and Gimlet, as the appear on the cover of their latest book, "The Dog Completed My Homework, and I Finally Passed the Course."

Who knew? Who had a clue?
That I was pink, and Sam was blue?
Modern Art just does that to you.

Am I Modrian or Klee? Grant or Bell?
Mosaic? Gouache?
Who can tell?

I'm not square. Nor hip, or hop.
I'm a dog. Tri-color, too.
Except now I'm a swirl or two.
A pink box on a mass of lines.
If I look ... and squint ... just there.
I'm divine.

Look at Sam. His head's a block.
I've told him that. He listens ... not.
What is Modern Art,
But a very old way
To look at life
And have your way.

--Gimlet Rose

Bloomsburied

How very Post-Impressionable
("Gimlet Gets Cushy")

Gimlet Gets Cushy; Gimlet, the Fauve Devil; Gimlet, etc. Painting by Gimlet. Acrylic on canvas.

We use colorful and visual language today.

How better to get our points across?

We see red, go green, are pea green, avoid turning yellow and sometimes fall into feeling blue. Today, however, we are in the pink.

Best of all, don't forget, there's Gimlet.

Is her silence golden ... or unusual?

Unusual, since her bark can peel paint. So much volume from such a small, white, whirlwind.

Gimlet, purple prose will not do. You are a Dashiell Hammett kind of dog.

--Nigel

 

The Velveeta School, or The Old Cheese Masters

Dogs eat homework all the time, but they draw the line at paintings.

"SAMMY IN MY FACE," digital art by Gimlet Rose, 2008.

Tillamook Cheddar.

We write this with straight and furry faces.

There is a famous dog painter, not blue, who goes by the name "Tillamook Cheddar." Perhaps you've heard of her, been to some of her exhibitions, or have read her book, "Portrait of the Dog as a Young Artist" (a twist of James Joyce).

Cheddar is into the"Scratch" school. Meaning, she is a subtractive artiste, scrounging positive space from negative. She's not into Old Scratch or devil worship, to our knowledge. Is she into Old Spice? You have to wonder ...

Yes, well, we are no Cheddars, although we do like our New York sharp, pal, or not at all.

It caught our fancy, this cheesy form of painting. Could we paint something with our new Painter software? Gimlet took the challenge and Sam took it upon himself to stand still for a while.

This doesn't resemble Sam's current curly form, but it could be him someday, in his tricolor best. It's possible Gimlet has proved a whiz, then, and become not only painter and pet but psychic. Those are three "p" words, added to the fourth "p" as in "pop" artist, which could be another post on dog artists named after sodas.

Gimlet, named after a drink, demurs.