It's Art, It's Art and all of the critics agree, agree

Once upon a time, when Maplethorpe trauma invaded Cincinnati, I sent in a song to my radio hero Gary Burbank. I had arranged it on my synthesizer with a sort of oomp-pah German horn section background. It was essentially a reworking of My Bonny and the chorus was the title of today's blog. So sing along...



Which brings me to what I really wanted to discuss today...art. That is visual art. Paintings, etchings, that sort of thing. My wife and I recently were watching a show on PBS that offered an indepth look at some ancient painter and why he painted what he painted, what his thoughts were even down to how his brush strokes were applied.


Yesterday I visited my brother and his family. They are wonderful people and sure I love being with my family. Like all families there are some quirks. One nameless relative seems to enjoy dwelling on knowledge and travels, which gets expounded on during most visits. A very sweet person though. This week's discussion was regarding an artist named John Stobbard, a popular artist that did maritime paintings.

Because I am not one to be a smart ass, I kept my mouth shut. But today I will enlighten all and prove that I am equally versed in the arts by expounding on my knowledge of one of the worlds most famous men that took brush to an easel, A man who knew exactly how to mix burnt umber with titanium white. This would be non other than Causius Marcus Collidge.

Known to all as simply "Cash" he was a self taught artist that rose to fame drawing cartoons for newspapers and furthered his career by sketching comic backgrounds for carnivals. You know the kind of standup boards that have a hole where you can stick your head in and so you can take a nice photo of you being a muscle man with your buxom sweetie hanging on your shoulder.

However what C.M. Collidge is best noted for is the 16 paintings he created for the Brown & Bigelow Cigar Company. These are known as Dogs Playing Poker.


Laugh if you will, you can have your John Stobart, you can have your Thomas Kinkade. In 2005 two of the original by C.M. Collidge called A Bold Bluff and Waterloo were auctioned off for $549,000.


It's art, it's art and all of the critics agree, agree.

It's art, it's are and all of the critics agree.