Van Dog, illustrated artistic madness that runs with energy and mirth

When most elementary-aged children are shown Van Dog, they won’t understand it. Heck, I’m decades older than an elementary student and I’m 100% confident that I don’t understand every inference, cultural nod, or artist’s reference in Van Dog. The obvious fact that the painting dog is certainly supposed to be a canine representation of Van Gogh, I got that one. After that, it’s up for grabs, but the one takeaway that every reader will walk away with; is that Van Gogh is a big, colorful, mostly-wordless, illustrated book that’s loaded with infectious energy.

Older readers will recognize illustrations that remind them of world-famous works of art when they turn the cover. There’s a diner at night, a blank face with a top hat, and a bald-headed creature with their hands on their cheeks…as if it’s screaming. That last one is the only work of art that I know the name of or who painted it.

When the book starts in earnest the colors and images wake up any sense of malaise or wandering attention that readers might have. Our main character, Van Dog is sitting in his flat drinking coffee. Strewn around him are books on Monet, Van Gogh, Paolo Uccello, and a couple of other masters, as well as, a suitcase of paints, brushes and other supplies.  He rides his bicycle, but not so fast that his beret might blow off, to the country where he sets up art camp in a clearing.

Initially, the flowers, trees, and insects do their nature thing, but then they all awaken at the same time. A worm pops up out of a flower and is curious as to what the serious-looking dog is doing. The worm rests on Van Dog’s head compliments him on the painting, which brings out a myriad of other activities. The ants gather, a flamingo starts speaking to the artist, a confused sheep says “meow” and more. Of course, all of this activity encourages other friends to come out to the field.

A giant lizard storms the field asking how to get to Tokyo, it rains, a UFO lands, worms escape from a fisherman, the ice cream man shows up, and a vampire wonders if they have tomato flavor. A talking fish asks the anthropomorphic monkeys if they’ll buy it some, a house cat jumps over a tree and night falls, revealing a new cast of nocturnal sights and sleeping day denizens.

Van Dog realizes that his painting is finished and cycles to the museum where the art curator immediately says it’s beautiful. The reader isn’t able to see his creation yet, that’s coming later in the story. Instead, we follow Van Dog home, where he sits down for a snack and some tea, with his new friend the worm. As the book ends we see his creation as it sits in the museum. It’s a massive creation that has aliens, vacuuming mice, llama-riding cowboys, a giant lizard, vampires, and multiple dozens of other things that seemingly don’t make any sense.

It’s also a brilliant fever dream piece of artwork that every kid has in their mind’s eye but never makes it to paper.

Is the book teaching a lesson about being yourself and doing what you want to do, regardless of what others might think? Van Dog was just painting what he saw in that field, despite what people or insects said to him along the way. If I were looking for a moral or lesson from Van Dog, that’s certainly the leading possibility. One could also glean from the story that it’s about keeping your eye on the prize and concentrating on what you see is important, despite the chaos and lack of order around you. Some might see Van Dog as a Where’s Waldo or Family Circus comic strip where we’re trying to follow Billy back home via a dotted line that meanders all over the neighborhood.

Much like the art that Van Dog references, how you interpret this illustrated book is entirely up to you. Whoever picks up the book will be entertained on some level. It’s bigger than many of its contemporaries and more creatively insane than most of them. Every time you look at a page you’ll see something new, different, weird, funny, sweet, and introspective or another reason to pick it up again to discover the lucid love of comfort reading.

Van Dog is by Gosai Herba with illustrations by Mikolaj Pa and is available on Milky Way Picture Books.

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