MR. WINKLE HOTEL-MOTEL NUDES
Photographic Works by Lara Jo Regan
 

The Mr. Winkle Hotel-Motel Nudes, Lara Jo Regan's latest photographic series of her pre- naturally cute canine, was born out of downtime during years of Mr. Winkle book tours. The strange and comic novelty of her celebrity pooch languishing in low budget and luxury lodgings across the land in between Beatlemania-esque encounters with his adoring public was something Regan couldn't resist documenting. The project eventually expanded to include posed studies and fast took on unexpected dimensions. "Observing the odd, otherworldly Mr. Winkle in these spaces somehow put the generic quality of hotels and motels and the amusing differences between them into even greater relief. Depending on the room rate, it was like spotting an elf in a discount carpet store or a leprechaun at the opera."

The series represents a complete departure from Regan's What is Mr. Winkle? series that transformed her rescued mutt into a cult icon through a series of popular cards, calendars and books in which Mr. Winkle, typically in costume and posed in whimsical studio sets, assumes a series of identities playing on his chameleon looks.

For Regan, though, working on the Mr. Winkle Hotel-Motel Nudes was like coming home, as the work most closely resembles the look and feel of the interpretive documentary work on American culture she was best-known for before "winklemania" swept over her life. "I've always been drawn to what is simultaneously strange and beautiful in the everyday physical world, and to the holiness and humor in the more mundane features of the American landscape. Having the opportunity to evoke this through my beloved muse Mr.Winkle was one of my life's richest thrills."