I am always inspired by great art. But great art wedded to a clever concept with branching possibilities for promotion and altruism really excites me. Clair Hartmann's Downtown Dog Project is just such an endeavor, one I am thrilled to share with you.
Clair is an accomplished painter who sells her work every other Saturday at the Wilmington, NC Farmers Market. There, she began to notice all the people who brought their dogs and how you couldn't help smiling when you saw them. So, as an artist sparked by new subjects to explore, she decided to photograph and paint them. Then she took it an ambitious step further, she committed to painting a dog a day for 100 days.
Now, according to her A Painting a Day blog, she is up to Dog #42. She purposely doesn't name them because she wants you to feel like you are adopting the dog, so you get the honor of naming it. Each 8" x 8" painting is $175 and Clair donates $25 to the Humane Society. By the end of the year, she plans to publish all 100 dog paintings in a book.
I think her dogs are wonderful, but as an artist and entrepreneur, I deeply admire her vision and discipline. To paraphrase Andy Warhol, I think turning a good idea into a fully-realized project is the best kind of art. Keep going, Clair, I can't wait to see more. Here are a few of my favorites:
P.S. Thank you Mary Beth Bankson for sending me the info about The Downtown Dog Project.
