Cookie Becomes a Painting

Remember this guy? I jokingly call him “Top Dawg.” About two years ago, someone sent me a photo of a baby German Shepherd, one of my favorite breeds, and I couldn’t resist transforming him into a cookie design.

As I mentioned previously, my baking activities are slowing down. That doesn’t mean the cookies are far from my thoughts. Au contraire, my friends. I’ve been pondering how to transfer my designs to more permanent formats for quite some time, and earlier this year I tried my hand at creating replicas through programs such as Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Though the results were okay, okay didn’t cut it for me. Something was missing.

“Maybe you should try your hand at painting,” my usually stoic Norwegian husband suggested. “The thing about your designs is that they are very physical. So if you want to recreate them in some other way, I think you need to do that in an equally physical format.”

Had I been in a cartoon strip, I’m sure you would have seen question marks appear above my head. Painting? An equally physically way? I was confused, mostly because I couldn’t visualize what Wolf was suggesting. And I’m most definintely not a painter. But Wolf often has interesting observations and suggestions. Eventually, I found myself at the art supplies store looking for painting supplies. After showing some photos of my cookies to some art students who work at the store, I came home with a few tiny canvases, a bucket full of acrylic paints and brushes and the students’ advice to practice on scrap paper first. It took a few piles of paper to get the hang of using brushes and controlling the amount of paint I used. Painting IS different from piping icing on cookies. In just the past few days, my respect for real painters has grown exponentially.

Well, here’s my first attempt. Let me know what you think.

“Top Dawg,” by mari pfeiffer. Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 10 ins.