 | The Saddest Thing I OwnA collection of life's saddest objects, their sad stories, and our reasons for holding onto these sad things. |
Smiling Poodle Painting
Posted On Sunday April 30, 2006 By Elizabeth
I looked around the walls of my apartment the other day and realized that almost everything hanging there was something I’d found in the trash on my block. I like these rescued things. Maybe that’s sad.
I found this particular painting, the Smiling Poodle Painting, in the trash one day when I was walking to work. I thought it was kind of funny. Someone had clearly painted a picture of her poodle. And the poodle was smiling.
It is signed “Nancy Weber ‘67.” That is the year of my birth. No doubt the poodle depicted is long dead, and it’s quite possible that Nancy Weber is, too. I never knew this woman or her dog, and I now look at this painting and I wonder about them. Guests to my apartment think it’s quite funny.
Is it a terrible fate to have your act of love end up being part of someone else’s irony?
I have a sense that the smiling poodle is, in fact, Nancy Weber, that it is she who is smiling through the painting. I also see the poodle as a mirror of my own obsessive love of my cats. I can’t paint, but if I could I would paint endless pictures of my cats, and someone could find them in the street long after both I and my cats are dead and hang them in her apartment.
Tags: art, cat, death, dog, guilt, irony, painting, poodle, trash
Other People's Thoughts
It is NOT a “terrible fate to have your act of love end up being part of someone else’s irony.” Irony is, among other things,a form of love. It is the absence of any attention that’s the “terrible fate.”
— Debra Thursday May 4, 2006 #
I went on a search for Nancy Weber, and found an srtist by that name living in a retirement community called “Laurel Gardend”.Here’s a link to an article about her.Sorry, it’s PDF.
http://www.athenacommunities.com/newsletters/lgmnov2001.pdf#search=’Nancy%20Weber%20artist’
— Della Monday May 8, 2006 #
my google search for poodles lead me here and that is on about page 21….made my day knowing someone else finds treasure in garbage! Elizabeth loved her poodle and you have an excellent eye for heart art!
— Lana Sunday July 23, 2006 #
It is wonderful that such an adorable painting was saved by you. As an artist I wonder were my work will end up-it is nice to know someone like you will save it from being destoyed!
— Melinda Dalke Tuesday June 17, 2008 #
The Saddest Thing I Own is a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It is supported by the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the valuable contributions of artists to society.
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