Van Dogh

Van Gogh's bedroom at Arles, faithfully rebuilt: the yellow bed, the rush chair, the pictures pinned to the wall. Except a dog now sits in the middle of the floor where the painter should be. The pun is the whole joke and the whole tenderness, the artist as a loyal animal alone in his room. The matching notebook page is headed "xanthopia, seeing yellow everywhere," beside Van Gogh's line about "frankly accepting my role as madman."

James Formichella is a Gloucester painter who works by association. Each of these canvases has a companion in An Alphabetical Caprice, a notebook he compiled from his working notes and source clippings: an A to Z in which every letter spirals off into art history, etymology, money, madness, and mortality. He came to Gloucester from Denver in 1978 for the plein-air light, trained in oil under John C. Terelak, and is an associate member of the North Shore Arts Association.

One of a kind. Giclée on stretched canvas, a flat $180 regardless of size. Fish City Studios, 39 Main St, Gloucester. Leaves the gallery ready to hang.