In many of the works in Wayne Thiebaud’s exhibition, the clowns appear to be in motion. In Running Cars, for example, the viewer can imagine that the clowns will soon bump into one another and perhaps a comical collision will take place. A viewer may wonder what might fly out of the cars once they hit?

Clowns are the source of inspiration for the paintings in the exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: Clowns.

This activity allows you to use your imagination and create what you think happens next by creating a funny flip book inspired by the clowns in this exhibition. A flip book is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change.

The oldest known documentation of the flip book appeared in September 1868, when it was patented by John Barnes Linnett under the name kineograph or “moving picture.”