Dog Art Today

Free Shipping from Marjorie Weiss

A Chestertown Moment

Dog Art Today favorite, Marjorie Weiss, is offering free shipping this season on all her prints, cards, and original paintings.  Offer expires December 31, 2009.  So visit her website and order today.

Read my review of Weiss's work here.

Grass Valley Charter School Dogs at Zazzle and The Flour Garden

Grass Valley Charter School Dog Portraits at the Flour Garden Bakery

In October I featured a story about Katherine Schad and her one-woman initiative to turn every 1st and 2nd grader at Grass Valley Charter School into a dog artist.  This month, with the help of teachers Audrey Hight, Lori Davis, and other GVCS parents, Kath completed her mission of producing 88 dog portraits.  They also launched a website, set up a Zazzle store, and mounted a local exhibition of the works at the Brunswick Basin Flour Garden Bakery. 

This weekend, I stopped by the bakery to view the dogs and the only way I can describe them is magical.  I just couldn't take my eyes off of the spectacular wall collage of creativity, then I would lose myself in the originality of each dog.  I truly think this is the kind of project that will stay with these children forever, giving them confidence in their own creativity and knowing that that confidence is the foundation on which anything is possible.  Several Dog Art Today readers have commented that they would like to replicate this project at their childrens' schools.  Kath has plans for creating a lesson plan on her website, but this effort has been a HUGE endeavor on her part, and any ideas or assistance would be greatly appreciated.  Feel free to contact her here.

In the meantime, consider contributing to renovation of the new GVCS library by purchasing something from Zazzle.  Order by December 15 to make sure you receive it by Christmas.  Here is just a small sample of all the fun products:

Violet's Sweatshirt

Dexter's Tote

Zara's Tie

Makai's T-shirt

Arlo's Mug

The dog portraits will be on display at the Flour Garden Bakery until the end of December.  In January, they will be on view at Summer Thyme's.  A fundraiser with sales of the works is being planned for the spring. Take a moment to view all the dogs individually here and here and remind yourself that everyone is an artist...even you.

Biro Dog at The Golden Smith

Holy moly, I was completely wiped out by a serious cold this week.  I am just coming to the surface, so today's post will be brief, but it's the perfect opportunity to send you over to my new favorite blog, The Golden Smith.  It's written by David Neale, a gold and silversmith in Melbourne, Australia.  I just love the array of original images, and interestingly curated posts he shares.  There are not a lot of dogs, but I found this one in a collection of Biro (ball point pen) sketches.

I also love his posts about spirals, Le Corbusier's contradiction between his architecture and his art, and an exquisite entry featuring elephants.  Neale's own work is wonderful too.  I am especially drawn to his rings.  Enjoy!

I will be back next week with holiday gift ideas and discounts for Dog Art Today readers.

Dog Collage Artist Sam Price

Blues

Collage is my favorite medium.  But dog-centric collage artists are rare.  From my own experience I know how many hours it takes to find the right images for a collage that can then appear deceivingly simple, so I am not surprised that collage artists usually price themselves out of the pet portrait business.  But not Sam Price.  After ten years of experimentation, he's figured it out.  Yes, it still takes hours.  And yes, he does it all by hand.   But, using a grid system, similar to the technique of Chuck Close, Sam has created a unique style that allows him to work with the recycled materials he loves on the subjects he adores.   Turning paper waste into dog art -- brilliant!

Sam is offering Dog Art Today readers a 20% discount if you order a portrait before the end of the year.  Gift certificates are available here.  Visit his website for more information.

English Bulldog

Pug Lee

Portland

Redwood Beagle

Saluki

Sam Price's work will be on display at Wag Hotel in Sacramento until the end of the year.

New Dog Paintings by Heather LaHaise

mistake

Heather LaHaise is one of my favorite dog artists.  I first reviewed her work here, and never thought I could admire her work more than I already do.  Then, Heather told me she finds most of her models at PetFinder.com, an adoption site for rescue animals.  "These dogs are just too beautiful to go unrecognized!"   she said.  I feel the same way about her work, beautiful and profoundly moving.  Thank you, Heather, for giving rescue dogs a voice and reminding people of all the amazing dogs out there in need of a forever home.

Heather's new show, "the dogs are back in town," is on view at Mr. Friendly's New Southern Cafe in Columbia, SC, until December 31.  The paintings are available for purchase through Heather's website.  A portion of sales will go to buy food, blankets, and supplies for Heather's local animal shelter.

connected

corner

SOOT

FRENCH BLUE

MYTH

iconic

I am the proud owner of a LaHaise original of Darby.   To commission a portrait of your pet contact Heather.

Dogs + Ghosts: Theresa Duncan Blogs from the Grave

Today is the Feast of All Souls in Western Christianity and the Day of the Dead in Mexico, a good day for a ghost story…

The last image Theresa Duncan posted on her blog

On July 10, 2007, Theresa Duncan, blogger, game designer, and stalled movie producer, committed suicide with a cocktail of bourbon and Benadryl. She was 40 years old. A week later, her brilliant, rising-art-star boyfriend, Jeremy Blake, joined her by stripping down and walking into the surf at Rockaway Beach in Queens, NY. He was 35. I, like many others, became obsessed with the story and followed it closely, first by dissecting Theresa's own blog, The Wit of the Staircase, then through the numerous newspaper articles, and finally, by tracking the Duncanologists, bloggers who sprung up to sift through the conspiracy theories, clues, and questions about Duncan and Blake's deaths.

Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan by Bret Haller

Eventually, like most Web phenomena, interest in Duncan and Blake cooled. The Duncanologists stopped posting. The story went mainstream with a Nancy Jo Sale's article,  "The Golden Suicides," in Vanity Fair, and it lost its occult allure.  And my obsession with the couple evaporated like most everyone's.

Then, last summer, I was feeling arty. I wanted to create something. And when I feel this way, I usually reach for something that inspires me; a book, an image, a website.  This time I pulled my favorite piece of art that I own off the bookshelf. It's called The Fourty Year Old Beatnik, and it's a copy of the one most enthralling exhibits I have ever experienced, the kind of show that changes you, that moves you, that astounds you in its depth of humor, beguiling simplicity and layered complexity.  I saw the show at Works on Paper in 2001 and I knew the artist who created it was the real thing in a way I have never felt about any artist before or since. The gallery had a printed version of the show on sale so I bought it.  I wanted to look at this work to push my brain to think anew. I wanted to remind myself that originality still exists.  And mostly, I wanted to keep track of this artist.  But, I had forgotten, until I reached for the book again this summer, that this artist's name was Jeremy Blake.

When I realized I had been a fan, obsessed with his work before I was obsessed with his death, I got a chill. And the tragedy of his suicide became magnified by the loss of the talent I had read this in many articles, but know understood more concretely.  Then, I wondered what had happened to the couple's reputation posthumously.  I knew Blake had been scheduled to have a retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  I wondered how that went.

Googling "Theresa Duncan Jeremy Blake" got me to this Gawker post I thought I had misread: The Late Theresa Duncan is Still Blogging.  What the hell does that mean?  I clicked and discovered that two new posts had appeared on Theresa's blog since her death.  I got another chill.  "That's a little creepy," I thought. I had no idea how creepy.  The post that appeared on October 29, 2007, over three months after her death was this:

Basil Rathbone's Ghosts

Basil Rathbone was entertaining a friend one night at his home in the Hollywood Hills.  Both men were keenly interested in dogs and their breeding. His friend had brought with him two handsome specimens.  As it got late, the two friends had a parting drink and called it a night. The friend and the canines got into the car and drove away.  But, sadly, not very far.

As Rathbone turned to go back inside, he heard the screech of brakes and the sickening sounds of a ghastly car crash.  His friend and the dogs were killed instantly.

In deep shock, and with the thought, “He was just standing here,” pounding in his aching head, Rathbone heard the damned phone begin ringing.  Mechanically he picked it up and heard the voice of the MGM studio’s night switchboard operator.  “Sorry, Mr. Rathbone but I have a woman on the line who simply must talk to you.  She says it’s desperately, desperately important.”  Probably some smitten fan, he thought as the operator said, “Sir, I’ve never heard anyone be so urgent.  She hopes you’ll know what a certain message means.”

Rathbone, impatient and in a daze, snapped, “For Christ’s sake, put her on and be done with it!”  The woman was calling from her home, located way to hell and gone on the far side of Los Angeles.  She had a low and cultivated speaking voice and identified herself as a trance medium and clairvoyant.  At that time the movie colony was going through one of its periodic infatuations with psychics, astrologers, table-tipping séances, Ouija boards and such. Rathbone scorned all such claptrap, but, he said, “The woman’s voice was so compelling.”

“I have for you, sir, what we term ‘a calling of urgency,’” she said.  “It came to me with such impact that, although not knowing its meaning, I simply had to find you.  The message is brief.  Here it is in its entirety: ‘Traveling very fast. No time to say good-bye.’  And then, ‘There are no dogs here.’ ”

The next time I saw Rathbone (F.Y.I., he lived at 135 Central Park West), more years had gone by, and he was in the act of receiving a summons for letting his dog Ginger off the leash in Central Park.  I thought he might have decided, looking back, that it had all been some sort of bizarre coincidence, or maybe a highly original prank.  He said, “At the time, of course, I was quite shaken by it.”  And now? “I am still shaken by it.”

Link: Ghosts - Dick Cavett - Opinion - Times Select - New York Times Blog.

Editor's Note: Theresa had left this post to appear automatically on this date (another will appear on New Year's Eve).

Theresa Duncan in her East Village apartment with Frank Morales, posted on her blog May 31, 2007.  Note her Yorkie named Tuesday (for Tuesday Weld) at her feet.  I always wondered how a person with a dog and a blog could end her life...and who ended up with Tuesday.

The next, and final, entry on Theresa's blog did appear on New Year's Eve of 2007.  It is entitled "New Beginning" and it's comprised of the fifth stanza of T.S. Elliot's poem "East Cocker."  It, too, is chilling in that it reflects on one's inability to communicate, of finding oneself in the middle of life and looking back at "twenty wasted years," and trying again and again to regain what is lost.  Gawker notes that the final line of the poem is not included: "Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning."

And that may be the most disturbing aspect of this entire ghost story, because for Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake the end is their beginning.  Last week, it was announced that Gus van Sant is set to make a movie based on their golden suicides to be written by Brett Easton Ellis based on the Vanity Fair article. 

My obsession continues…

Grass Valley Charter's Glorious Dogs

Bianca's Chihuahua

I first met Katherine Schad at the farm stand she established at the Grass Valley Charter School to raise money for their new library.  Families donated bounty from their gardens and "customers" like me could pick up organic produce by putting a donation of a few dollars into the jar.  I was flummoxed about how much to give, and Katherine guided me through the nuances of the honor system.  In the process, she noticed my DreamDogsArt baseball cap and realized she knew my blog.  In fact, she had submitted artwork to last summer's Dog Art Today wine label contest.  I remembered her work and was thrilled to meet one of my readers and we started chatting about all things dog art related.  Little did I know that Kath -- as she likes to be called -- was in the process of coordinating one of the most ambitious and inspiring dog art projects I have ever covered.  She had decided to oversee the creation of two pet portraits for each of Grass Valley Charter's 1st and 2nd graders.  That's 22 students per class for a total of 88 dog paintings.

To understand the scope of this project, you must also know that Kath has no formal art background and she is not a teacher.  She is simply an involved parent, and when she learned that her two children, who are in first and second grade, would be studying dogs and coyotes with their expeditions this year (different grades have different themes that run throughout their studies for the year), she decided to mount this pet portrait project.  She donated the 12 x 12 canvases and the paints and with the help of the teachers, Audrey Hight and Lori Davis, used an overhead projector to enable the children to trace and shade the contours of their dogs on to the panels before painting them with acrylics.

When Kath first shared her vision with me, I was intrigued.  But nothing prepared me for the passion and exuberance of these dog paintings.  The works are so fun, immediate, and original, they are a reminder that everyone is an artist before they are taught that the sky must be blue and a heart red.  They also remind us that a great teacher is someone who can figure out how to harness that originality with the perfect balance of parameters and freedom, someone who may or may not have a teaching certificate or an art degree.

When I look at this project I see inspiration manifest; by a mother with the courage to take an idea and make it real, by the the childrens' fearless use of color, and by a school that sees creativity as a worthy investment for their students' futures.  Kath says "that when the children see what they have been able to create, they just beam."  I beam too when I look at these works.  I see the pride in the young faces and I see that dog art can change the world.  I am in awe.

Marin sketches her dog

Brennan and Hurley

Ori's Chihuaha

Sidney's work

Wolfie by Suraya

Zach's work

Parker beams

I will be following the Grass Valley Charter School Dog Art Project as it evolves.  Kath has plans for a gallery exhibition and a fundraiser for the library.  Stay tuned. 

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Gone to the Dogs at Denise Bibro

"Dog's Best Friend" by David Barnett

If you're in NYC tonight stop by "Gone to the Dogs," a canine-themed exhibition showcasing the work of 22 artists and 3 painting pooches at Denise Bibro Fine Art.  Many of the artists are Dog Art Today favorites. Some like David Barnett (above) are discoveries to me.

Participating Artists:

David Barnett, Sophie Blackall, Dusty Boynton, Boyce Cummings, Peter Drake, Katherine Fraser, Eric Ginsburg, Lauren Grabelle, Catherine Hnatov, Serge Hollerbach, Brooke Jacobs, Michel Keck, Susan Kuhlman, Damon Lehrer, Laelia Mitchell, Jane O’Hara, Amy Ross, Nancy Schutt, Raychael Stine, Jenny Toth, Tim Vermeulen, Douglas Wirls, Susan Woolf .

Doggie  Artists:

Sammy the Doggie DaVinci, Tillamook Cheddar,  Ziggy the Painting Pekingese