-Dog Kennel- mechanical bank c. 1970

This -Dog Kennel- mechanical bank was made by an anonymous artist, out of tinplate. Oh my god, look at these puppy dogs in their little house. This object is so completely charming and ridiculous, and it's a bank! I guess you give it a coin and the doggies do a trick? What I find so compelling about this is how it so perfectly captures the spirit of play, with a naivety that somehow manages to be both sincere and utterly tongue-in-cheek. I can imagine the artist carefully choosing each color, each shape, and each line, guided by a deep love for their subject. There’s a wabi-sabi quality to the execution, with its simple lines and slightly imperfect rendering, which gives it a kind of soulful authenticity. It's hard not to think of outsider art and folk art traditions, where artists create from a place of pure expression, unburdened by the constraints of the art world. I want to make something equally joyful!