Mt. Vernon, NY

I really enjoy looking at this. Not because I like it; in fact, it makes me feel pretty uneasy. The confrontational Halloween elements interfering with the making of this soup. But the wobbly bowl, thick outlines around everything, the great yellow outpouring with the black dashes. There is a wonderful white negative space throughout makes it all seem strangely intentional.

Jackson, MS


Jackson, MS. I feel half-tipsy already looking at that painted sign. The steeply tilted pool table, the sloppy drunk floating head and glass. Curious choices are made regarding the layering of cue sticks, rack, burger image and shark image. Possible the burger and shark were there first. All the imagery presumably represents things you’ll see inside Dot’s Lounge, which raises questions about the shark. With all due respect to the rules, that wall is begging to be loitered against. Ubiquitous asterisk flourish.

(Photo by Ashleigh Coleman)

Monterey, TN


This old woman (you can see her gray bun) (behind the brown and green bun) is struggling to carry a gigantic hot dog. One wonders if the hamburger sprouted hairy man legs, or if a man was carrying it and it engulfed his torso. Either way he’s not in a position to help. An unsettling grouping.

Tucson, Arizona

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It is as though Vinnie asked the sign painter to make a dog chef serving a hot dog, imagining a cartoon dog in a chef’s hat. But the result is a bizarrely realistic painting of a German Shepherd delivering the food, which is not whimsical but nightmarish in feeling.  Still, a great shadow under the Sonoran dog.

Southbury, Connecticut

Dynamic, fanciful, airborne.

Globe, Arizona

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Exceedingly drippy. I’m adding a new category called Fanciful. These pies are meant to be diagrammatic, representing the different sizes, but with all that cheese, and the implied narrative of the missing piece, they go beyond pure schema.

(photo by J. Gordon)