Store’s mural is twist on a dogs-playing-poker motif

Don’t make “Mona Lisa” frown. Keep the high-top sneakers off “Whistler’s Mother.” And never, ever slap a toupee on that guy from “American Gothic,” because classic art shouldn’t be trifled with.

That is unless the classic art in question involves dogs playing poker. In that case, let your imagination run wild just as artists have done since the first piece in the iconically kitschy series was created more than a century ago.

For the latest take on a dogs-playing-poker motif, check out the mural by Las Vegas artist Fernando Reyes on an exterior wall of the Gamblers General Store, 727 S. Main St. There, fronting Gass Avenue in a location perfect for selfies and photo ops, is Reyes’ homegrown version of “A Friend in Need” (1903), which immortalizes the pets of store owners Jill Delozier and Adam Pennell and their employees.

The couple have owned the business since June 2017. When they moved the store across

the street to its new location in March, they thought it’d be nice to have a mural on the building.

“We wanted something different from the other store,” Delozier says. “We love our dogs. They’re part of our everyday lives, like a lot of people. So we wanted to do a mural, and we thought of dogs playing poker, and we wanted to bring our pets, our dogs.

“I’ve always found that people really gravitate toward animals or dogs,” Delozier adds. “Even on social media, I’ve found that’s what generates the most likes.”

They enlisted Reyes, who created the designs on the couple’s old shop and the front wall on their new one, too. Delozier says she and Pennell told Reyes about their dog-and-poker idea, then let him decide on the specifics.

Reyes says his work generally is classically based, often centering around (human) nudes. But he enjoyed tweaking the anthropomorphized dog-and-poker series, which includes 18 paintings created by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge from the late 1890s to 1910.

Reyes took as his inspiration the painting that depicts one dog surreptitiously slipping an ace to a buddy under the table. His models — created with the aid of photographs — included George, a 10-year-old dachshund mix, and Molly, a 13-year-old beagle, both owned by Delozier and Pennell, and employee pets Delta, Cracker, Ruca, Taco and Lola. In a panspecies departure from the original’s all-canine motif, Reyes even included employee pet Corvo, a gecko, peering onto the poker table.

Reyes also hid a few Easter eggs in the mural, including a tribute to Italian painter Titian in the cut-off painting, seen to the left of the mural, that features the hindquarters of a dog instead of a woman.

Reyes says passersby and even a bus driver or two stopped and talked to him as he worked. Delozier says Reyes spent about three weeks on the project, which was completed about one week ago.

Everybody seems to have enjoyed the project. Delozier hopes people smile when they see it.

“I don’t know, it’s just something nice. It’s just a feel-good thing; ‘Oh,wow, I haven’t seen that before!’ ” she says.

“I just love my dogs and I wanted to incorporate them into something, and this is what we came up with. So if people take away, ’Wow, she really likes her dogs,’ I’ll feel good about it.”

Contact John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.