Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s plaster figure is the second entry about and part of the recent auction haul from Britain. This is the second little statue of this kind to enter the Pictorama collection. (I wrote about it and my love of auctions in a post that can be found here.) Today’s is a little beat up and seems a little fragile for the relative rough and tumult of Deitch Studio, home to Kim, Pam and cats. As I penned last week, a box of Felix related items was purchased and expelled all sorts of bits and pieces and while I am not disappointed that this was among them, but I may not have otherwise sought it out.

Felix lovers know his famous walk, hands clasped behind back pose quite well, although it is usually accompanied by a furrowed brow instead of this genial smile. He is not the most squared-off earliest model of Felix, but is an early rendering nonetheless. I do like his somewhat blocky body, a good version of the Felix design. He is a tad grimy and some of his white bits are chipped, but his expression is there and he sports a big black button of a nose. He is about five inches high and bears no markings at all.

Variations on these early statuettes are abundant which makes me wonder if there was a time in Great Britain in the late twenties when you could barely see a desk without one or another, or perhaps an ashtray. Maybe he will join me at the office. The Felix representation is fairly low there these days.

In considering Felix’s contemplative walk, somehow he, an early animated cartoon of course, was always in motion and that even seems to bleed into the early toys, which walk, toddle, jump or use variations on this pose. Or maybe that is just true of all toys and I am over thinking it.

As for me, I do like to work things through in my mind while walking, not to mention running which is especially good for it. There is something about being in motion which helps my brain untangle its knotty thinking. I used to set aside time at the office, not quite weekly, to spend a half hour or so just thinking which I generally did sitting in my chair contemplating the ceiling or the view, always a bit nominal, out the window. It was always good to take myself out of the weeds some and just try to adjust to the broader picture and be strategic. I have fallen out of the practice but maybe it is just the thing for returning to the office this fall.