Lollies for Dali, an homage

14 x 11 inches, acrylic on gessoed mounted aluminium panel               

 painting #299, 2024 - black floater frame 

While window shopping in Halifax a decade ago, I entered the Freak Lunchbox candy store on Barrington Street. I was aware of the existence of Chupa Chups lollipops, but I think that it was the first time that I actually saw some in person. The sight of them gave me a visceral response, so I bought two. Upon my return home, I did a Google search about this candy on a stick. Chupa Chups is a Spanish brand of lollipops and confectionary founded in 1958 by Enric Bernat.    

In 1969, Salvador Dali was approached to reinvent their logo. He would set the Chupa Chups name inside a daisy shape flower and suggested that the logo be place on top of the lolly instead of its' side. It would soon become one of those iconic commercial logos and help propulse the brand. 

Click to view this entertaining bio of Dali

Upon learning this, I knew I had to paint these while paying an homage to Salvador Dali. I would soon acquire a coffee table book entitled Dali Pop-Ups by Courtney Watson McCarthy. The book features the Persistance of Memory on its cover which seemed fitting to anchor a composition. Since these lollipops were hard to find in New Brunswick, I ordered a dozen from an on-line vendor. When they arrived, they were much smaller than I had anticipating, so I decided to put this painting on hold for the time being. Almost a decade would go by.

While standing inline at a self checkout at Walmart this past summer, I spotted a few open boxes of XXL Chupa Chups in the now so-call candy aisle. These were the size that I had envisioned for a painting, so I bought six. In keeping with the narrative, I changed Ball to Dali on the vintage mason jar. It was quite the challenge to paint.     

                                          _________________

My love affair of visiting art galleries and museums across North America and Europe began soon after I began painting in 1987. Among the firsts, was the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (BAG) in Fredericton, the designated art museum of the province of New Brunswick. It was here that I was introduced to the art of surrealist painter/artist Salvador Dali. The gallery owns no less than five of his paintings, among them is one of his masterworks, Santiago El Grande painted in 1957.

This painting was first exhibited as the centerpiece inside the Spanish Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Once the fair closed, the massive painting was acquired by Lady Dunn (Marcia Anastasia Christoforides), wife of the late James Dunn. It was gifted to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery when it opened in 1959. The Dunn's had established a relationship with Dali since that late 1940's, having commissioned three portraits paintings that also hang in the Beaverbrook.

Santiago El Grande, oil on canvas, 1957

Beaverbrook Art Gallery, November 2022.

After many visits to the BAG, it's quite possibly the painting that I've spent the most time admiring inside an art museum during my lifetime.  I was finally able to connect the dots and fully grasp the scope of the imagery with its symbolism and metaphors during the process of preparing my 800 km hike on the Camino de Santiago back in 2009 (Way of Saint James). 

Santiago El Grande translates to Saint James the Great, who's the patron saint of Spain. Legends has it that the apostle James the Great made a miraculous apparition at the Battle of Clavijo during the Reconquista, helping the Christians conquer the Muslim Moors during middle ages. In art, Saint James is often depicted on a white horse while holding a sword and given the name of Moor-slayer. In this Salvador Dali's painting, the sword has been replaced by a crucifix made of light beams with Jesus looking towards heaven. His hands are not nailed to the cross but are facing upwards while forming the shape of cups. Symbolically holding all of the sins of the world.  

Video description of Salvador Dali's paintings

at the BAG, narrated by John Leroux, art historian and 

currently manager of the collections and exhibitions at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

In 2005, we visited the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. It houses a comprehensive collection of more that 2400 works of all kinds, spanning the entire artistic career of Dali. The collection was acquired over a 40 year period by art patron and friends of Dali, Ohio couple Reynolds and Eleanor Reese Morse. The museum is the home to more masterpieces of Dalí than any other museum in the world, including eight large-scale paintings. In 2011, the collection was moved into a new modern day storm secure complex. 

Self in from of the old Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Fla. - 2005

My son Jean-Luc, age 10, napping on a melting clock bench at the Salvador 

Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Fla. 2005.

Over the years, I had a chance to see, The Persistance of Memory up-close on several occasions. Housed in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City, although smallish, it's considered by many to be his most famous painting. I've also had the good fortune to view countless others during my travels and was pleasantly surprise to even discover a few at Musei Vaticani in Vatican City.  

While vacationing in Torremolinos, Spain this spring, we rented a condo-apartment for one week. Less than a km away, along the sea-side promenade are two sculptures of Salvador Dali and his wife Gala who stayed here during the spring of 1930.   

Sculpture of painter Salvador Dali and his muse Gala, 

whom between April and May 1930 resided in the Santa Clara Guesthouse, 

where Dali created the painting "The Invisible Man". 

Avant-garde poets Manuel Altolaguirre and Emilio Prados are the two other figures

who were part of the Generation of '27.

This painting is currently on view at the Fog Forest Gallery in a group exhibition entitled, "Winter Songs" - Nov. 15 to Dec. 31, 2024. (painting will be removed from exhibition if sold). Check website for gallery hours.

To acquire this painting please contact: 

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street, Sackville,

New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 3N5

Phone (506) 536-9000

https://fogforestgallery.ca/

e-mail: janet@fogforstgallery.ca

-SOLD

Candy Crush

 

"Candy Crush"

24 x 16", acrylic on mounted gessoed aluminium panel

painting #284, 2021

Not long after completing the painting "Crush Bottle on crushed Crush cans" in 2017, the concept for this painting came to me while playing the video game Candy Crush Saga on Facebook. The big question remained, "But how would I do it?". It wasn't until I walked in a Wal-Mart in early October 2019 that I found the answer with Halloween treats. 

While it wasn't that important that all of the candies found in the video game be in the painting, nonetheless there had to be some. Swedish Fish, Tootsie Roll Pop and jelly beans became the three candies to link the imagery to Candy Crush Saga.

It is among one of the most elaborate, complex and colorful painting I've created so far. It took upwards of 4 months to complete. 

Candy Crush Saga was first introduced in April 2012 for Facebook by King Digital Entertainment. It became an instant hit. According to Wikipedia, by 2013, Candy Crush Saga had been downloaded more than 500 million times across Facebook, iOS, and Android devices. At that time, it was considered the most downloaded app from the Apple App Store. By 2016, the game had over 293 million active players each month. Candy Crush Saga is considered one of the first and most successful uses of a freemium model. While the game can be played without spending money, players can buy special actions to help clear more difficult boards, from which King makes its revenues. At its peak the company was reportedly earning almost $1 million per day. Since its inception, it has become of multi billion dollar venture. My wife is an avid player and is rank among the top 3% in the world after reaching level 4500. While all of this time playing for free. 

This painting will be part of a small solo show entitled "Art-ifacts", hosted by the Fog Forest Gallery in Sackville, NB from October 14 to November 5, 2021. 

Unfortunately, in order for the gallery to remain open during the pandemic while keeping everybody safe, the gallery director and I came to the decision that it was safer not to hold an opening reception. The public however will be able to visit the gallery at their leisure during the run of the exhibition. The gallery is open on Thursday and Friday from 10 am - 5 pm. or by appointment.
   

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street, Sackville,

New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 3N5

Phone (506) 536-9000

e-mail: janet@fogforstgallery.ca

-SOLD

French Kisses Deux, un hommage à Robert Doisneau

Acrylic on gessoed aluminium panel, 18 x 12"

painting #260, 2018

Just in time for Valentine's Day, this is a follow-up painting to French Kisses (painting #247, 2017). Retaining the same theme, I'm paying an homage to French photographer Robert Doisneau (1912-1994,) a photojournalist who became renown for his street photography especially around Paris.

"Chez Gégène, 1947" is from the Robert Doisneau- Graphique de France 1993 calendar. Chez Gégène is a restaurant with a terrace and dancefloor. The institution opened prior to World War I (1914-1918), more than 100 years ago. It's located in Joinville-le-Pont, 9.4 km from the center of Paris in a southeastern suburbs of French Capitol.  The image depicts two couples kissing on the terrace. This photograph is more than 70 years old, so the younger couple would now be around 90 years old. 

In the first French Kisses painting, I chose the month of February since my wife Suzanne and I got married on Valentine's Day. For this work I chose the month of June. The year 2018 will mark 30 years since we purchase our house, and moved in on June 24, 1988. Symbolically, we looked like the younger couple when we made that house a home....we now look like the older couple.  

I'm going to Paris later this spring. Time allowing, I might try to have lunch here! 

To acquire this painting, please contact:

Galerie de Bellefeuille

1367 avenue Greene, 

Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2A8 Tel: 514.933.4406

e-mail- art@debellefeuille.com

website 

-SOLD

French Kisses, an homage to Robert Doisneau

16 x 12", acrylic on gessoed birch panel

painting #247, 2017 

I initially got this large Hershey's Kisses for my wife while picking up a Valentine's Day card at the store. When I got home, I opened the box and marvelled at it like an "Objet de désire". I decided to put it in my prop box for a future painting and ended up getting her a heart box of Russell Stover chocolates instead. 

The title inspired the narrative for this painting. The composition came to me when I uncovered this 1993 Robert Doisneau calendar that had been stored away some 23 years ago. Since my wife Suzanne and I were married on February 14, I arranged the pages so that "Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville"(Kiss at Town Hall), was on the appropriate month. 

Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) was a French photographer who became reknown for his street photography and as a photojournalist. "Baiser de l'Hôtel de ville" first appeared in LIFE magazine on June 12, 1950. The couple kissing in the photo was only made public in 1992 and identified as Françoise Delbart, 20, and Jacques Carteaud, 23, both aspiring actors at the time. The story behind "Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville" is well documented on his Wikipedia page - click HERE. 

During our six week vacation in Europe this spring, we were fortunate enough to attend "Bistro, de Baudelaire à Picasso", the inaugural artistic exhibition held at La Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, France. The exhibit was comprised of about 100 works that included paintings, photography, drawings, literature and cinema. Dating from the 18th century to today, the show explored how artists from various movements were influenced by Café bars. A full wall was dedicated to the amazing photography of Robert Doisneau.

Earlier this year I was invited by Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal to submit some artwork for a Photorealism group exhibition. I am delighted to announced that two paintings were selected for this prestigious show that will run from September 30 - October 10, 2017. 

Participating artists: 
-Roberto Bernardi
-Jason DeGraaf
-Shaun Downey
-Stephen Fox
-Judy Garfin
-David Ligare
-Yigal Ozeri
-Barbara Pratt
-Juan Pujol
-Alvin Richard
-Janet Rickus
-Glen Semple
-Steve Smulka
-Paula Urzica
-Andrew Valko
-Francine Van Hove
-Jason Walker

-Gordon Young

Galerie de Bellefeuille

1367 avenue Greene
Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2A8
Tel: 514.933.4406

art@debellefeuille.com

http://debellefeuille.com/

-SOLD

A Date with Marilyn, an homage to Warhol

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 16 x 12"

Painting # 222,  2014

Last year we spent the long Easter weekend in Pittsburgh, Pa.  It's a wonderful city with many top-notch museums, several professional sports teams, a great downtown core and the skyline view atop Mount Washington is breathtaking. We took in, a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game with Sidney Crosby leading his team to victory. We also attended the hilarious "Broadway Across America" musical, "The Book of Mormons" at the Benedum Theatre, and a Green Day in concert at the Consol Energy Centre. Philanthropists Andrew Carnegie, Andrew W. Mellon,  Henry Frick and H.J. Heinz II have contributed greatly in creating a lasting legacy, making the city a sophisticated and cultural hub. 

One of the major reason for that trip was to visit the Andy Warhol Museum. I've been an admirer of Warhol's artwork for as long as I've been painting. It was never a question of ''if'' I would visit the Andy Warhol Museum, but ''when''. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. Upon exiting, I even received a parting gift of a large Brillo Soap Pads Box, an homage to Warhol by Charles Lutz, that was part of the exhibition, Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years.   

A few years back, I had the idea of incorporating some sort of Kerr's Candy in a Kerr Mason jar and entitling the piece, "Kerr's in Kerr". The jar and lollipops has been on a shelf in my studio ever since. Being in a Warhol state-of-mine when I got home, I took out a 1991 Andy Warhol Celebrity Calendar which I had held on to for some twenty odd years.  As I started flipping the pages of the calendar, I noticed that the colour combination of the jar/lollipops was the same as the image in that calendar for the month of March, "Eighteen Marilyns" (Reversal Series), 1979. This is when the genesis and narrative for the painting took place. The title suggest an encounter with Marilyn Monroe, a fantasy entertained by many.   

The image above is of my wife Suzanne with another of Warhol's Reversal Series

image of Marilyn Monroe that was on exhibit

 at "La FIAC" (International Contemporary Art Fair) at 

le Grand Palais in Paris in 1989.

Last month, Suzanne and I spend 10 days vacationing in the states of Georgia and South Carolina. As luck would have it, we got to see a wonderful art exhibition entitled "Marilyn, Celebrating an American Icon" at the Jepson Center in Savannah, Ga.  The exhibit includes the artwork of more than fifty artists, ranging in style from Andy Warhol’s Pop Art to photographer Tom Kelley's 1949 famous nudes of Marilyn against a red velvet background. Click on the banner below for details of the exhibition that runs until July 27, 2014. 

-SOLD 

Nostalgic Candy

Acrylic on gessobord, 14 x 11"

Painting #219, 2013

I came across this candy jar at Chapters Book Store during the fall of 2012. It was priced at $15, but probably contained two dollars worth of candies. The art of presentation and packaging really caught my eye which compelled me to buy it. The translation in French of Nostalgic Candy for the Canadian market should be "Bonbons nostalgiques". "Friandises d'antan" translates to Treats of Yesteryear in English which sounds equally sweet. 

The art book that anchors the composition is one of those amazing Taschen indispensables written by Kerstin Stremmel. The frontispiece for Realism is Gumball XV (detail) by Charles Bell. The first time I witness a solo show by a Photorealist was Charles Bell at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York City during the month of November, 1994. This is a nostalgic homage to Bell, the type of artist I technically aspired to become in the earlier stage of my artistic career.  At the time, it just seemed quite impossible to paint like that. The book itself is a general overview on Realism with the likes of Eric Fischl, Lucien Freud, Edward Hopper, Tamara De Lempicka, Georgia O'Keefe, Gerhard Richter, Charles Sheeler, Grant Wood among others and two more Photorealists- Chuck Close and Richard Estes. 

This painting will be part of the 15th Anniversary Celebration Group Show of the Elliott Fouts Gallery running from January 4 to February 6, 2014. 

Participating gallery artists also includes: Christopher Stott, John Karl Claes, Gale Hart, Susan Hoehn, Bryan Mark Taylor, Anthony Montanino, Joe Santos, Kathy O'Leary, Deborah Bonuccelli, Vito Antonio Ferrante, Sandy Delehanty, Samantha Buller, Gary Pruner, Philippe Gandiol, Susan Shoger, Kathrine Lemke Waste, Terry Pappas, Judy Nunes, Manuel Nunes, Teresa N. Fischer, Gregory Kondos, Micah Crandall-Bear, Vic Vicini, Bill Chambers, Randy Brennan, Tod Steele, Jeff Nebeker and Tim White.

photo provided of EFG

Elliott Fouts Gallery
1831 P. Street Sacramento, California, USA , 95811 
Phone (916) 736-1429 
e-mail: efgallery@sbcglobal.net

-SOLD

Pops on Pop Art

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 2011

12 x 16, painting #200

The inspiration for this painting is a play on words that emerged during the photo studies I did for the painting ''Sally blowing bubbles, an homage to Charles Schulz''. Pops, a hard candy lollipop with a bubble gum center was introduced after Tootsie Roll acquired Dubble Bubble in 2004. It is a modern take from the Tootsie Pop, first introduced to the public in 1931, 80 years ago.

The art book is Pop Art, by Tilman Osterwold, originally published in 1990 by Taschen. This edition was part of Taschen publishing 25th anniversary, printed in 2007 featuring Roy Lichtenstein's M-Maybe (a girl's picture), 1965 on the cover. In reference to the book's content, an original Tootsie Pop appears in Richard Hamilton's 1956 collage, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?

This is a milestone painting in my artistic career, as it marks my 200th original piece. I have been painting for 24 years. From 1987 to 2000, I only produced an average of two paintings per year, 27 in fact. I became more prolific in 2001 when I started painting for my first solo show that consisted of all new works. That 2002 show entitled Perspective would be the catalyst to jump start my professional career. My artwork is forever changing, but it doesn't get any easier with time. I found this piece to be especially challenging.  It might just be the fact that I'm tackling subject matter that I often find intimidating to paint. Rather than viewing it from a technical aspect, I try to focus more on composition, artistry and content.

-SOLD

Sally blowing bubbles, an homage to Charles Schulz

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 12 x 10''

2011, #191

The idea for this painting came to me while doing a bit of research after viewing a Peanuts comic strip that appeared in the Telegraph Journal on October 19, 2009. The strip itself seemed like a perfect vehicle to use for a still life study featuring bubble gum.

Walter Diemer (1904-1998) aged 23, was working as an accounted for the Fleer company when he accidentally invented bubble gum in 1926 while experimenting with chewing gum recipes. It was an instant hit, selling 150,000,000 units at 1¢ a piece in it's first year of production. Ironically, Diemer never patented his product and did not receive royalties from the company, although he would eventually become senior vice-president of Fleer. The new novelty gum was given the name  Dubble Bubble.

In my pursuit of documenting popular culture, it was a perfect opportunity to pay homage to both Diemer and cartoonist Charles Schulz. As Schultz was also documenting popular culture himself with Sally doing a ''show and tell'' in front of her classroom.

Charles Schulz really needs no introduction.  The famous cartoonist who drew from his own life using himself, family members and friends as the inspiration for several of the Peanuts characters. Charlie Brown first appeared in a strip named Lil' Folks that ran from 1947-1950. When Schulz approached United Feature Syndicate, a comic strip known as ''Peanuts'' made it's debut in newspapers on October 2, 1950. The strip is considered to be one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium. What is probably most remarkable, Schulz often used the strip as a vehicle to address social commentary of issues of the day happening in America and the around the world. The strip ran for 50 years. The last original strip was published on February 13, 2000,  the day after his death at age 77. The strip remains as popular as ever in reruns.

The background for the painting is the cover for a book entitled Holidays - Through the Year - Five Classic Stories, published by Hallmark. The five stories were all made into animated television specials. I can recall watching them as a child. They include: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Be my Valentine, Charlie Brown and It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown. I purchased the book during the Holidays at Hallmark. The store also had many endearing figurines on display as part of the 60th anniversary commemorative celebration of the Peanuts. For the painting, I did change the order of the characters so I could feature Snoopy, Woodstock and Charlie Brown, who would have been hiding behind the jar.
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This paintings marks the introduction of the use of new technology. I purchased an Apple iPad as a tool to have better accessibility to the quality of the photographic material I use as reference material while painting. I was often disappointed when I saw the digital image in print. The luminosity of my PC monitor was often lost during the printing process, and it greatly affected the colors as well. It's an absolutely brilliant tool, which permits me to move the image around, zoom in certain sections for details, and I can even listen to music from my iTunes collection while I paint.
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After a week of painting, I suffered a setback. While I was removing drawing gum used to mask certain sections, chucks of the board came along with the residue. There was no way I could remedy the problem, and had to restart from scratch. On a positive note, the lettering in the new version is much better.

Peanut comic strip trivia-

- a total of 17,897 strips were published

- it ran in 2600 newspapers at it's peak

- had a readership of 355 millions

- published in 75 counties and in 21 languages

-SOLD

Candy Apples

 Acrylic on gessoed hardboard
5 3/8 x 3 5/8'' (13,7 x 9,3 cm)
2010 - #189

I've always associated Candy Apples with Country Fairs and amusement parks. I actually did these Candy Apples myself during the fall of 2009. The recipe I was using had specific instructions to follow to in order to concoct a perfect candy. While heating the mixture I was using a candy thermometer to a achieve a specific boiling point. Everything was going well until the doorbell rang. When I returned to the pot, the mixture was boiling on overdrive. There were hundreds of air bubbles trapped inside the bright red sauce which remained during the actual apple dipping. The bubbles did add another dimension when I set them outside in our back yard to take the photo study and the sun rays flooded those air pools.

On a sad note, because of the over boiling, the candy became too hard and we couldn't even bite into them. Oh well, the sacrifices an apple has to go through for the sake of art.

-SOLD

Gum Balls

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard

5 3/8 x 3 5/8'' (13,7 x 9,3 cm)

2010 - #188

Growing up in rural New Brunswick, there was a tiny convenience store about ¼ mile from our house that had a red gumball machine. Inside the glass globe was not only bubble gums, but tiny charms & trinkets that were sparsely inserted. Kids at school would sometime give me their pennies so I could buy them gumballs, but what they really wanted were the charms. This one time, the prettiest girl in my class (and of the whole school as far as I was concerned) gave me a whole quarter. Can you imagine the look on my face when the ''red puffy heart'' inscribed ''I Love You'' dropped into my hand? She was also the girl whom I gave my prettiest Valentine on February 14.

Once I started doing the drawing for this mini painting, I realized that a lot of the gumballs were not exactly round. Also that because of their glossy finish and the light, the colors bounce off each other. I somehow wishes the gumballs would have been more defined, but I painted them as they were behind the glass. This painting will be included in the Christmas exhibition of Handworks Gallery in Saint John, NB.

-SOLD

Two pinwheel candies on Target

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, #161

12 x 12'', 2009

This mason jar was purchased on ebay more than a year ago especially as a prop for a painting because of the greenish tint in the glass. In the meanwhile, I've been using it in my studio to store some candy. This image is from a studio shoot I did on the spur of the moment while I was waiting on paint to dry. The art book is ''Pop Art'' by Tilmon Osterwold (page 2) with Jasper Johns ' Target (1974). The original artwork by Johns is en caustic and mixed media on canvas. There appears to be a collage of newspaper print underneath the paint. In the photo study, you get reds that bleeds on the yellow that does not occur on the original. It is probably cause by depth of field of the camera. The title was inspired by my son Jean-Luc whom I suspect sneaks into my studio to visit the jar sitting on a bookcase, since I have no explanations why I have to refill it once in a while since I don't eat any.

Near & Far - Handworks Gallery Oct. 16-30, 2009

-SOLD

A monopoly of lollipops

Acrylic polymer emulsion on gessoed hardboard, 16 x 16''

Created Nov. 16- Dec. 5, 2008, #152.

This image has been on the back burner for more than two years. These lollipops were purchased for grab bags to offer trick or treaters on Halloween. Their transparent qualities inspired this playful image that was first meant to be fun and whimsical. Monopoly, the board game has a theme about climbing up the real estate ladder. The object of the game is to own every piece of property and drive the other players into bankruptcy.

If I am ever going to make any social commentary about our current economic state, this might be the time. Another title for this painting could have been, The collapse of the housing market: A monopoly of suckers.

When the average person gets a 3,5% wage increase per year, while in some housing markets, the prices of real estate were making gains up to 20%/year, it was just a matter of time until houses would no longer be affordable. Hitting the bandwagon in order to later resell to make a profit, or for the simple desire of owning a home became difficult for many. Others who are able to sustain these mortgage payments are house poor. With an influx of default and bank foreclosures when interest rate climb ever so slightly, this starting a chain of event that created such an impact that it can only be measured on a Ritcher's scale. Shaking the foundation on Wall Street and the global stock and commodity market, when giants cracks of several major US insurance companies and banks were revealed. Whether is was caused by over zealous buyers, sellers, building contractors, Realtors, banks lending to unqualified buyers with sub-prime mortgages or the government.

There are so many possible analogies in the imagery. From the least to the most expensive proprieties: Mediterranean Avenue to Boardwalk. With the lollipops in the colors of red, green and yellow which appears like traffic lights. When passing GO on yellow, it does become a cautionary tale. The Community Chest might not be as full as it once was. In the revised September 2008 edition of the Monopoly board game, the Luxury Tax has gone from $75 to $100 (a sign of the time). None of the lollipops appear perfect. The yellow has a piece missing near the stick, the sticks are not centered on the greens and reds, and the grape flavor on the left has a major crack in it.

During the initial drawing, the colorful grid of the cropped board reminded me of a composition of a Piet Mondrian painting. While I took great care to try to get everything exactly right, it only came to life once I started to apply all of the lighting effects in white paint on top. This was all done freehand, as it is not as important to get everything absolutely right to create the proper effect. It was a lot of fun and a very creative process.

My comments are not meant to point the finger or hurt anyone's feelings, just a reflection on our current situation. On a brighter note, there are 8 lollipops on the board. In Chinese culture, the number eight is considered lucky, meaning ''prosperity'' or ''wealth''.

-SOLD

Update - 2009/07/22 - ''A monopoly of lollipops'' was a finalist in the Still life / floral category of the Artist's Magazine 26th Annual Art Competition. Name to be publish in the Dec. 2009 issue.