Goose

Here's a painting of a Canada goose I did a few years ago on an old hide stretcher. The wooden stretchers were used here in the mid-Atlantic to prepare and preserve muskrat hides, which during my youth were fetching around $7-$8 per pelt. Not so much these days, methinks. I had a stack of these, on which I was doing thematically related paintings (sometimes trite, like black labs, marsh scenes, etc.) to sell. People then started making requests, so I was being asked to paint shit like non-water dogs (sort of OK), flowers (huh?), and clowns (get the f**k out of here). I finally gave up - people were missing the obvious connection between the stretcher and the subject matter. I only hope these don't fall into the same category as those painted saw blades you sometimes see at the county fair...