Bubble Bath Series - Dogg Pound Gangsta

Dimensions:  44" x 29 1/2", parlor 30" x 16 1/2", 58" x 38.5"

Medium:  Mixed Media Print on Deckled Edge Paper

Edition Size:  125 regular, 30 parlor, 9 exhibition

Availability:  Available

Year of Release:  2018

Bubble Baths from Limelight Agency on Vimeo.

It seems very much like the world is one big round bubble bath comprised of an endless amount of smaller bubbles that we each all live in. Within these bubbles, a meaningful expression through which the personality of the person and the broad outlook of a group are visibly similar, communicating and fixing certain values of religious, social, and moral life. 

This sanctuary of one’s bubble provides a safe place that allows independent thinking and dreaming. I used it as an inspiration for a body of paintings in the early 1990’s. They were some of the first work, a series of doghouses. This beautiful drawing of a dog house, Snoopy’s sanctuary, allowed Sparky’s character to freely transform himself into such things as a flying ace, a novelist, or just Joe Cool.

Then in early 2013, in the Tahiti studio, another group of sanctuary inspired doghouse paintings were produced. This group included Snoopy on the rooftop. The work was meant to represent the feeling of freedom experienced while working in the bubble of the studio in Taha’a.

Later in 2013, a large-scale black and white canvas of the doghouse, as well with Snoopy on the roof, was produced and titled, My Crib. The title was appropriated from the hip-hop music played in the Venice studio during the painting’s construction.

The hip hop title combined with the familiar Schulz imagery is a reminder, to the viewer, of how essential it was, to the bubble that Sparky and I shared, that the work was to be about something different, and a new way of seeing what he did. The authenticity, within that bubble, allowed me to understand that it’s not what people see that is art. Art is the invisible gap.

So, making the invisible, visible, would inspire seeing other bubbles in this world through the Bubble Bath series.

The Bubble Bath series, use the appropriation of Sparky’s characters as the visual object matter, and the titles, to camouflage the certain representations of some other bubbles.

For example, the character of Snoopy, with the title Dogg Pound Gangsta Bubble Bath, makes reference to the rap music within the bubble of my studio. Snoopy’s sister Belle, in Uptown Art Lady Bubble Bath, referring to new art collectors in the early 1980’s, and Snoopy’s brother Spike, in Swiss Herb Bubble Bath, referring to my circle of friends.

– Tom Everhart