Berkeley Breathed: Flawed Dogs: The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound
Donna Long: The Best Dog in the World: Vintage Portraits of Children and Their Dogs
Peter Bowron: Best in Show: The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to Today
Stephen Huneck: The Dog Chapel: Welcome All Creeds, All Breeds. No Dogmas Allowed
Murmurs, 1992
Robert Rauschenberg, one of our great American artists, died today at age 82. He was a giant of the art world and will always be one of my favorites.
Page 10, Paragraph 3 (Short Stories), 2001
Lily Scent, 1981
Tibetan Locks (Avenue), 1987
Images courtesy of Artnet.
Kisses
I discovered this beautiful cache of photos on Rebecca Collins's always inspiring Art Dog Blog. See more of Fast Boy's Girls in Bed set on his Flickr site. Note: some artistic nudity.
No Shame
Getting up Early to go to the Patagonia Summer Sale
Some Girls in Bed
Comfy
Do Not Feed the Animals
Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana by Russell Lee, 1942
I'm featuring dog photography this week in honor of the New York Photo Festival. Did you know that the Library of Congress has started a Flickr photostream? Here are a few dogs from their archives.
Beggar's Dog, Hoboken, between 1910 and 1915
Polish Strikers at N.Y. Mills, Utica, between 1910 and 1915
A Store with Live Fish for Sale, near Natchitoches, LA by Marion Post Wolcott, 1940
Children in the Tenement District, Brockton, MA by Jack Delano, 1940
Tanis Guinness & Ta Wang, 1910
Thanks, Mom...
For letting me pick out the blue hat with the feather that's almost as tall as I am.
For making me this adorable fish dress and showing me that creativity is best the best designer label.
For understanding my need for a designer label in junior high and buying me the pale pink Ralph Lauren polo shirt.
For letting me stand on my own two feet in this photo and in life, but keeping your are around me just in case.
For making a great new life in Ohio when you were a NY gal.
For wearing this Pucci-esque dress to the Great Geauga Fair and bringing NY style with you.
For finding your way into this photo, a rare one, since you're the one always behind the camera.
For saving my artwork.
For faithfully reading my blog each day.
For being a great mom.
Love, Moira
I've never seen this amazing (though a bit blurry) photo before of Picasso and his beloved Dachshund, Lump. He's said to be "the only dog Picasso took in his arms." So cool.
Via The Long and Short of it All, a terrific blog for all things Dachshund.
Read more about Lump and his adventures with Picasso in David Douglas Duncan's book Picasso & Lump: A Dachshund's Odyssey
Galgos (Spanish Greyhounds)
Actually, nothing about these sleek handcrafted works of dog art is scrappy except for the fact that São Paulo artist Ted Benvenuti uses certifiably reforested Brazilian bentwood and carpentry shop leftovers to create them.
Rottweiler
Labrador Retriever
Beyond their beauty, I love their individuality. Like every dog I've ever met, their personalities are utterly distinct, even when comparing works within the same breed, like the Basset Hounds below. Simply gorgeous!
Basset Hound No. 1
Basset Hound No. 2
Basset Hound No. 3
Basset Hound No. 4
Available exclusively at Conceito Firma Casa. See more of Benvenuti's work here.
Via Cool Hunting.
This charming line drawing of a day at the Whippet races, Jelly Jelly Jelly All Jelly (c. 1900), by preeminent Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats sold today at Christies London auction house for £17,300 ($33,994). Honestly, I never knew about Jack, the brother of Nobel Prize winning poet William. But it turns he was the first Irish painter to sell for over £1 million. And, he is often credited with articulating "a modern Ireland of the 20th century, partly by depicting specifically Irish subjects, but also by doing so in the light of universal themes such as the loneliness of the individual, and the universality of the plight of man."
His father, Irish portraitist John Butler Yeats, also recognized his son's talents, stating "'Some day I will be remembered as the father of a great poet, and the poet is Jack." Ouch…I wonder how that made William feel?
Here are some close ups of the lovely drawing of Irish dog enthusiasts.
The inscription reads, "Them dogs/is took more care of/than if they was going/ter come in for a million o money"
Source: Wikipedia.
See all the Irish Art for sale at Christies here. It's very interesting to compare the work to what artists on the continent were doing at the same time. Obviously, the Irish were preoccupied with their battle for their Republic in the early 20th century, but you can see the steps they're taking towards Modernism, albeit baby steps of a young country fighting for survival, not yet ready to focus on art.
Moving Into Spring
Not really. Jennifer Kirk Hamilton is actually a S.C based, award winning, neo-expressionist painter. Her latest works are inspired by her two dogs and I think they are remarkable for many reasons. I love her colors and the energy she captures in this series. But mainly, I love that she looks at dogs as dogs.
Bad Little Dog
Many dog artists, myself included, obsess about getting our subjects' faces just right. We want that joyful, playful, adoring expression we see when we look into our dogs' eyes. But doesn't that make the work more about us? Like Narcissus and his pool, we want our dog's full attention if we are going to do his portrait. Right?
For Kirk Hamilton, it's not about the dogs; it's about the walk. About being a silent observer as her boys investigate the world around them, oblivious to her. Primal and curious, completely in the moment, exploring anew the path they take every day. What an amazing way to capture them while at the same time allowing them to be free, walking off her canvas, not staying put. How beautifully she reminds us that having a dog does not make us "owners." It makes us part of the pack.
Not Again Pooh
Mysique
Journeyman
Mystery of the New
Visit her website to learn more.
The designers at Ibride wanted people to bond with their furniture. The Sultan Dog Stool does the trick. Discovered by trend tracker Laura Sweet via NOTCOT.
Available at Design My World in red or black. Darling and functional. Love it!
Perro Aullando by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, 1960
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Via Cascada.
