Nice try, BC, but not as truly spectacular as the real-life game I witnessed one hot day on a crowded bus played by an enthusiastic father and his two small sons. The dad spoke with an English accent and had a unique (English?) twist on the script, at least one I'd never heard before. His opening line was, "I spy with my tiny little eyes..." I wondered if he was on leave from the Royal Shakespeare Company -- he was that into the whole drama of the thing. The 5-year-old could barely wait his turn and had a witty originality in the objects he selected. The 3-year-old enchanted with his carefully enunciated lisp: "I thspy wiff my tiny little eyeth." Everyone in the front of the bus, including a tough-looking tattooed adolescent, was completely mesmerized.
The tourism ad and the memory of the tiny little eyes brought to mind a painting I'd made in 2007, another under the heading of "I couldn't resist giving it a try." I assembled all my cat figurines (most of them gifts, one hand-me-down, one outright purchase) and a bunch of semi-related stuff and tried to bring them all together. The outcome is "White Cats and Rumi-Blue" -- with a salute to my friend Rumi, originally a work-buddy with whom there was an instant bond on the subjects of cats and the mellow softer-than-navy colour that pervades this painting.
I know everything that's wrong here...so many objects, so many tiny little eyes...but I still like the cats and the colour! I thought I'd learned the lesson with a 2009 painting, "The Wishful Bird" ...but still too many small fiddly details.
The little guys below arrived too late for the "White Cats" painting -- a parting gift received as I walked out the retirement door at the end of 2009. I spy their tiny little eyes and know that I can just enjoy them without trying to put them in a painting.
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