Dog Art Today

Beasts of Burden and Compassion Arts Festival NYC

 

Sacrifice by Jane O'Hara, 2005

 

New York friends, I wanted to remind you that "Beasts of Burden: Our Complex Relationship with Animals" will be on view October 20 - 22 in NYC. 

The exhibition is part of the Compassion Arts Festival, a weekend of song, artistry, discussion, film, and performances reflecting our multifaceted relationships with the earth and the animals we share it with.

There are two "Beast of Burden" events, the art show and a multimedia performance by curator, artist, and activist, Jane O'Hara.

If there's one piece that exemplifies the show for me, its Jane's Sacrifice (above), a 5-foot tall screen that depicts nine animals wearing vestments of the companies that killed them. It's inspired by iconic paintings of Christian martyrs and the notion that millions of animals sacrifice their lives to powerful forces everyday in similarly barbaric ways.

I think it will be moving to see this piece in person.

Also, I'm proud to have my work, Twelve dox-ZENs, included.

 

 

Twelve dox-ZENs by Moira McLaughlin, 2014

I produced this work in the in the wake of the death of my beloved longhaired Dachshund named Darby. For months, I was crippled by grief and creative paralysis. 

Finally, I decided to paint dozens of sumi-e ink Darbys on the pages of a deconstructed book, Buddhism and Zen by Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless. The series is a meditation on the Buddhist concept that the mind is an endless cycle of three processes: craving, acting, and discontentment.  

 

 

dox-ZEN XII

 

Exhibition: "Beasts of Burden: Our Complex Relationship with Animals"

TUF Gallery/O’Hara Projects
208 East 73 St.
New York, NY 10021

Opening Reception and Book Signing: Friday, Oct 20, 2017, 5 – 8 pm (vegan friendly & free to the public)

Gallery Hours: Saturday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22, 11 am - 6pm

Performance: "Reflections on Beasts of Burden by Jane O'Hara"

Saturday, October 21, 7:30pm

Symphony Space/Leonard Nimoy Theatre
2537 Broadway
New York, NY10025

Tickets for Jane's multimedia presentation are $20 in advance and $25 day of show available here.

Visit Beasts of Burden for more information about this exhibition and performance.

For information about all the animal-centric events happening this weekend visit Compassion Arts Festival.

P.S. Sadly I won't be able to attend. If you have a chance to take photos, I would love to see them. Tag me on Instagram and Twitter.

Thank you so much.  Enjoy!

 

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Beasts of Burden in NYC

 

 

"Beasts of Burden"

 

I'm excited to announce that an expanded version of the 2012 show "Beasts of Burden," curated by Jane O'Hara, will be on view in New York City, October 20 - 22, 2017 at TUF Gallery, 208 East 73 Street.

Opening night reception is Friday, October 20, 5-8 pm.

The exhibition includes the work of 14 artists exploring our complex relationship with animals:

Tony Bevilacqua
Denise Lindquist
Ariel Bordeaux
Nancy Diessner
Karen Fiorito
Raul Gonzalez lll
Adonna Khare
Wendy Klemperer
Jo-Anne McArthur
Moira McLaughlin
Moby
Jane O'Hara
Julia Oldham
Gedas Paskauskas

 

My series "Twelve dox-ZENs" will be on view.  This time they will be for sale individually ($400 each) or together ($2400). I'll have another post on this soon.

The show is part of the Compassion Arts & Culture and Animals Festival, a weekend-long celebration of song, artistry, discussion, film, and performances reflecting our multifaceted relationships with animals and the earth we share.

The festival is presented by two prestigious entities: Culture & Animals Foundation, a non-profit committed to supporting artists and scholars in advancing our understanding of and commitment to animals, and Compassion Arts, a creative arts and education initiative dedicated to expanding the way we see animals, nature, each other, and ourselves.

In addition to the exhibition, curator Jane O'Hara will perform a multi-media reflection on "Beasts of Burden" featuring song, video, spoken word and art in collaboration with singer-songwriter Joy Askew and poet Gretchen Primack, Saturday night at 7:30 pm at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, NY, NY.

Tickets for the performance are $20 each or $25 day of show ($10 for children and students). Click here to order yours.

There are many other animal-centric events throughout the weekend you might be interested in.

Visit Compassion Arts Festival for more information.

Donate to NMAS and Get a dox-ZEN

 

 

dox-ZEN V print by Moira McLaughlin is a $50 perk

The Los Angeles-based National Museum of Animals & Society, founded by Carolyn Marino Mullin as the first museum dedicated to enriching the lives of animals and people through exploration of shared experiences, is moving to a new, larger space. To that end, they've launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $50,000, and amount that will be matched by The Ellen Lavinthal Family Trust.

Currently they're at $29,306 with 23 days to reach their goal by February 18, 2015.

There are many terrific perks, and I'm honored that dox-ZEN V from my Twelve dox-ZENs series is available as a print at the $50 level.

Please consider making a contribution at any level, even $1, to support this institution and help it continue to thrive.

Visit the Indiegogo campaign to learn more and make a donation.

Get inspired by this video (view at Indiegogo if you can't see it in your email)...

 

Thank you for your consideration.

DANK At The Miners Foundry This Weekend

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The Miners Foundry Cultural Center by Moira McLaughlin

 

DANK, our ten-person artists collective, has a new home at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City. The historic building, established in 1855, destroyed by fire in 1856, and rebuilt in 1859, is a cultural gem in our Northern California gold rush town.

We are so honored to assist in energizing the building with art and cultural programming, and to continue the legacy of two artists, David Osborn and Charles Woods, the visionaries who helped preserve the Foundry during their lifetimes

Our premiere show, DANK at Osborn/Woods, opens this weekend, January 16 - 18, during the 13th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival, the largest environmental festival of its kind. This year's theme is A Wild Life.

It's been pretty wild getting ready for DANK...

 

 

Sheila Cameron, Moira McLaughlin, Kathy Frey and Joe Meade by Sky Mowen

 

 

Bird's Nest by Moira McLaughlin

 

 

Gallerist Molly Cameron by Moira McLaughlin

 

 

Joe on the Shelf by Moira McLaughlin

 

 

Foundry Nail by Moira McLaughlin

 

 

Eureka: Cynthia Levesque and Babe by Sheila Cameron

 

 

Push by Moira McLaughlin

 

Please come by and say hi.

Miners Foundry Cultural Center
325 Spring St.
Nevada City, CA 95959

Friday, January 16th, 4 - 8pm
Saturday, January 17th, 8:30am - 2pm and  4pm - 8pm
Sunday, January 18th, 8:30am - 2pm and 4 - 6pm.

In the morning, Steffen Snell of Foxhound Espresso will be pouring his awesome coffee and in the evenings, we'll have wine.

More information at DANK.

P.S. This event aims for zero waste.  Please bring your own mug, mason jar, or wine glass. More ideas for greening the festival at Wild & Scenic's website.

10 Tips on Starting an Artists Collective

 

 

Theo van Doesburg, De Stijl founder, wife, Nelly,  Dog, Dada, and Dancer, Kamares, 1925

 

Looking back at our DANK Experiment this summer I had some thoughts on how to start your own artists collective...

 

1.) Be Organic.  Meet weekly for coffee.  Share interstes.  Do a project together.  Let everyone participate, the whole town.  See who shows up. Do another project. See who shows up again.  Exchange long email threads not on Facebook (this will feel very intimate).  Then, after a year or so, form your collective with the people who are still meeting for coffee.

 

 

The Beats at Caffè Trieste in San Francisco

 

2.) Include both genders. I'm not going to lie, stuff will come up when men and women work together.  But, your collective won't defined by gender (women only) or lack of diversity (men only).  Also, testosterone is soooo handy...Is that sexist?

 

 

Dadaists (husband and wife) Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst by Lee Miller, 1946

 

3.) Put it in writing. A group of artists will have lots of ideas, probably too many.  Writing a manifesto, a mission statement, and/or a press release, makes you focus your goals, be able to explain them to others, and, most importantly, enables others to write about you.  Jack Kerouac may have coined the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948, but John Clellen Holmes introduced it to the world in this New York Times Magazine article in 1952.

 

 

Fluxus Manifesto by George Maciunas, 1963

 

4.) Pick a good name. Avoid the too dry (Critical Art Ensemble), the spelled weird (gelitin), or the impossible to remember (0100101110101101.ORG).  We love DANK because it popped out of Joe Meade's mouth as a description of a space in town and we couldn't stop using it as a noun, adjective, pun, and acronym for Do Art Now Kids.  It was organic (see #1)  And it resonates with Nevada City's cannabis culture.  But, having your name mean something else creates issues too.  If you Google DANK you'll see more images of DANK weed than DANK art.

 

 

Tyler Foote: DANK Dog by Moira McLaughlin, 2014

 

5.) Passion beats consensus.  If someone feels super strongly about covering all the windows with maps, and has the maps, and is willing to pull an all-nighter, alone, to do it, he wins.  If someone feels super strongly about how gross the bathroom is, and is willing to clean it, make it cool, and open to the public, she wins.  Step out of passion's way and allow for individual awesomeness.

 

 

Diverted, (Work in Progress) by Nancy Nelson with Joe Meade's Maps
by Moira McLaughlin, 2014

 

6.) Know the difference between "community context" and gossip. "Community context" means sharing information, e.g. what printer, merchant, or artist is a swindler, racist, or maniac: crucial things to know.  But avoid conversational gossip, especially about each other. No one wants to feel like s/he is the topic of conversation the minute s/he leaves the room. 

 

 

"Community Context" with Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon,
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Dog, ca 1913

 

7.) Be scared, but do it anyway.  Only feasible if you stick to #6.

 

 

Yves Klein: Leap into the Void by Harry Shunk, 1960

 

8.) Take lots of photos.  Hopefully one of you is a photographer and all of you play around with photo apps, social media, and hashtags.  Your photos don't have to be professional, but they should be interesting.  You're artists goddammit.  Make yourselves look good. Also label your jpegs.  For example the photo below is DANK-Joe-Meade-Celine-Adrianna-Negrete-by-Moira-McLaughlin-2014.jpg.  Seach engines will love you and your biographers will thank you.

 

 

Joe Meade and Celine Adrianna Negrete Painting DANK by Moira McLaughlin, 2014

 

9.) Track your finances, but keep financial pressure out of it.  We are fortunate to have a rigorous CFO.  Roseanne Burke loves to make spreadsheets and reconcile the books to the penny.  You might not be so lucky, but at least talk about money and get a clear understanding of the costs and who's willing to "buy in."  Balance between conscientiousness and fluidity.  New expenses will arise and you don't want budget meetings to devolve into "who ordered just an appetizer and who only drank water."  Also, avoid overhead or you can easily find yourself raising rent money and not making art.

 

 

Bauhaus by Claudio Divizia

 

10.) Ten is an excellent number of members.  It's so easy to divide by.

 

 

Numbers Portfolio by Robert Indiana, 1968

DANK is an artists collective in Nevada City, California. It was founded in 2013 by ten artists interested in post-Great Recession social issues, and a rural aesthetic grounded in the legacy of the California Gold Rush.

The name DANK comes from the wet wood smell that permeates Nevada City, a town situated on the banks of Deer Creek. It’s also a nod to one of the area’s premier exports, cannabis. And it’s an acronym; Do Art Now Kids.

Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest and DANK.