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Don't be surprised to see a little bit of yourself in Thomas Anfield's paintings of sock monkeys

By Adrian Chamberlain, timescolonist.com December 3, 2011

Vancouver artist Thomas Anfield, here with some of the subjects of his work, paints in a style inspired by Flemish-Belgium expressionist artist James Ensor.

Photograph by: Supplied photo, timescolonist.com

What better to represent the human condition than the beloved sock monkey?

On Sunday, Polychrome Fine Arts on addressStreetFort Street opens its exhibition of sock monkey paintings. The show, PlaceNameMonkey PlaceTypeIsland, boasts more than 20 works by placeCityVancouver artist Thomas Anfield.

This could be the most comprehensive sock-monkey painting exhibit to hit placeStateVictoria. Indeed, I'm going to go out on a limb and declare it that. I'll also recommend you see it, as Anfield's paintings are wonderful.

Of course, most North Americans know what sock monkeys are. They're stuffed folk-art dolls fashioned from work socks. In the country-regionU.S., the preferred sock was a red-heeled model - the De-Tec-Tip - originally manufactured by the Nelson Knitting Company (and still made by placeStateIowa's Fox River Mills). The red heel became the sock monkey's crimson mouth.

In placecountry-regionCanada, sock monkeys are made from a similar grey-and-white sock (the "lumberjack sock"), but with a red stripe on the end. Although home-made sock monkeys have been around for a while, they became really popular in the 1950s. Supposedly, the influx of cheap plastic toys in the 1960s slowed the sock monkey craze.

Anfield, a 50-year-old artist living on placeCityVancouver's east side, started his sock monkey series more than two decades ago. He has painted hundreds over the years. Sock monkey dolls were always around; his wife, who works in a vintage clothing store, collected them. Something about these curious creatures called out to Anfield.

He believes people immediately identify with sock monkeys, and in turn, his paintings. Anfield's theory: People gravitate to faces - and the sock monkey's blank, oddly human visage makes it somehow universal (despite what anti-Darwinists might say). The stuffed toys represent the everyman, or rather, the everymonkey.

"We already know who it is," Anfield said. "It's a stand-in for ourselves, in a sense."

The sock monkey theme might seem a touch gimmicky. Most doubters will be convinced after seeing Anfield's canvases. Educated on a full scholarship at the New York Academy of Arts, he's a highly accomplished artist whose brushwork and colour palette bring to mind impressionists such as Cezanne and Degas. Anfield cites Flemish-Belgium artist James Ensor as a seminal influence. If you look at the curious, mask-like faces in Ensor's paintings, that comparison makes fascinating sense.

One of Anfield's favourite sock monkey paintings is Travelers. The colours are gorgeous, jewel-like, almost glowing. The sock monkeys portrayed, all different shapes and sizes, line up obediently, as if waiting to board a train or a plane. Most grin broadly with lipstick-red lips - the effect is comical and slightly grotesque . . . in an Ensor-like way.

"My humour is a dark humour," Anfield said. "But I see everything as being rather positive and good, you know."

Anfield believes Travelers potentially has wide-reaching connotations. Some of the sock monkeys are accompanied by children. A large brown one looks sad, another flies above the crowd like an angel.

In the 1980s, Anfield found national prominence as a graffiti artist, working under the moniker Pablo Fiasco. Influenced by Mexican muralists and Keith Haring, he painted on the sides of buildings. Once upon a time, he was a roommate of Hugh Fraser, the Juno Award-winning placeStateVictoria trombonist. Anfield even painted album covers for Fraser's band, the Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation.

An interesting side note: Anfield makes the same facial expression each monkey is intended to have while painting it. He believes that, somehow, this helps him get it right.

He admits the sock monkey theme helps draw in the average person who might not be particularly interested in visual art.

"It's sort of a trick, to get you caught," Anfield said. "But hopefully there's some really good painting going on."

He added: "I paint them because I want to paint them. It's not just to be the 'monkey guy.' "

achamberlain@timescolonist.com

Monkey Island, a solo exhibition of paintings by Thomas Anfield, runs Sunday to Dec. 24 at Polychrome Fine Arts, addressStreet1113 Fort St. On Sunday, Anfield will attend the opening, from noon to 6 p.m.