The Boxer, painting of a brown and white boxer dog wearing a green newsboy cap and smoking a cigar with boxing gloves in background, art with boxer boxing ring, dog, trompe l'oeil, soulful uplifting inspirational art, soul stirring illusion art, romantic art,  surrealism, surreal art, dreamlike imagery, fanciful art, fantasy art, dreamscape visual, metaphysical art, spiritual painting, metaphysical painting, spiritual art, whimsical art, whimsy art, dream art, fantastic realism art, limited edition giclee, signed art print, fine art reproduction, original magic realism oil painting by Paul Bond

I love exploring our tendency to humanize animal characteristics, and so I wanted to feature a dog as a part of my ongoing Animal Portraits series. But I was having a challenge honing in on an idea. So I decided to employ a technique that I had read about for tapping into creativity which both Dali and Einstein used. I let myself fall asleep while sitting up in a chair and holding a key. When I nodded off, the key dropped and woke me up. The idea being that we enter that creative dream state just long enough to tap into it’s essence, then pull ourselves out quickly. In that very brief time I had a clear vision of a boxer dog in an old-school boxing gym. The sense being that he was perhaps once a great athlete, but now hangs around the ring talking about and dreaming of his former victories.

The Boxer

12 x 15 - Oil On Panel - Sold, Private Collection