Catbowl

I spent a bit of time when I grabbed this piece and then a little bit more now when I was typing this up trying to figure out the original source of this image and I was left in a bit of a cloud. Richard Stacks of Pacifica, California seems to be the original photographer, known best for commercial items featuring his photos of … you guessed it.. cats!

While googling further, I found a few hits of a similar shot Richard took of a goldfish staring down at a kitten in a fishbowl titled ALONE AT LAST, but in this image, the positioning of the fish and the cat are reversed and it's a totally different cat in the fishbowl. I continued searching for this specific image. Was it from the same session? Is it a look-a-like or bootleg inspired by the original Stacks print? 

While employing the power of Google reverse image search I came across an album from an artist named Spencer Radcliffe that uses the same art in this print I found, albeit, it seems as though the print had been worked into a decoupage piece. Wild! 

The album lists for $26 on Amazon so I am unlikely to purchase it, but I did track it down on Spotify. Released in 2015, 'Looking In' by Spencer Radcliffe, now based in Chicago, reminds me a tonne of a slightly cleaned up and polished Jeffery Lewis, a little bit slacker indie with a little bit of the freak-folk thing going on. I consider this a compliment.

Of course, this doesn't really solve the origin of this piece. It's clearly a commercially licensed mass manufactured poster print, It's remained in good condition with this plastic gold frame. It leans a little bit on psychedelia but the weirder 80's type, a flip on normalcy and living room scenes we've seen for decades.