Raspera is a Japanese subscription website that features photo-based templates for 3D paper animals. There is a wide array of fun creatures. I picked out my favorite dogs.
French Bulldog
Bridge
Last Sunday at Horsetail Lake in Cook County, IL, renowned sculptor Vasily Fedorouk and his wife, Dilbara Arapova, were playing ball with their dog, Era. The 2 1/2 -year-old German hunting terrier chased the ball into the lake and became entangled in the weeds. Fedorouk, 59, jumped into the
lake and rescued him, but became entangled himself. His wife and a bystander, both of whom cannot swim, called the police. They arrived 8 minutes later, but it was too late. Fedorouk had drowned in 6 to 8 feet of water.
I know this is a tragic story. But, it is also one of tremendous heroism. And when I read that his wife said, "He would want to be remembered for his art. He
[once] told me that after he dies, his art will still live on forever." I thought it would be fitting to share his work with other dog and art lovers. I think his sculptures are awesome — in the fullest sense of the word. I am in awe.
To his family, I am so sorry for your loss. There are no words to help you grieve, but know that his works and his selflessness are an inspiration to me as an artist and pet companion.
Legs
View more of Vasily Fedorouk's work at his website.
Read full Chicago Tribune article by Joseph Ruzich.
Bronze Greyhound by Artus Quellinus, 1609-1668
Hat tip to Michèle of Brussels, writer of the wonderful Eurodog blog, who keeps me informed of the latest European dog art news. When she sent me this post about this magnificent Greyhound bronze , I thought it was a contemporary piece. In fact, this lifesize dog sculpture was created in the mid-17th century by Artus Qhellinus of Antwerp.
Note the dog's detailed collar. On it, is the Roose family coat of arms, so it is thought that this is a dog portrait of the family's pet. Once again we see there is nothing new in our obsession with our dogs and our desire to memorialize them through art.
This is one of five sculptures recently acquired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Visit their website for more information.
I have mixed feelings about Australian artist Emily Valentine’s feathered dogs. I think they are absolutely exquisite but when I read that she makes them by trapping and killing the registered pest, the Indian Mynah bird (after her supply of roadkill and dead pets ran out), I felt uneasy. But it seems that is the point.
Valentine wants her art to “stimulate the viewer with the uncomfortable nature of the feather, to
question our callousness treatment of animals and birds, and ask how we
sub-consciously classify animals – pet or pest, valued or worthless,
beautiful or plain and why.”
See more of Valentine’s dogs on her website, and let me know what you think about beautiful dog art made with dead birds. For me, the word would be conflicted.
Hat tip to Tara Aveilhe. Visit her blog, Nothing Elegant which is anything but. It’s one of my favorites.
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One day Cornwall-based artist Robert Bradford looked at his children’s box of outgrown toys and noticed the “random collection of colors, shapes, and forms they made.” He thought, “If I could find a way of putting them together to constitute a
larger form they would have great potential as larger scale sculpture.”
Potential indeed. I think his toy dog sculptures are fantastic! If you’re in London, you can view the soft sculpture one (5th from the top) at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair from March 12 – 15, 2009. See more of Bradford’s works at his website.
If you’re an artist, your assignment today is to look at the toy chest, the junk drawer, or your cleaning supplies with new eyes. Maybe you’ll find a work of art.
Via news:lite.
P.S. Robert just sent me a note to let me know he does commissions of people’s dogs. Contact him at his website if you’re interested. He also sent this new photo of his soft sculpture dog. Love it!
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Day 8: My favorite dog art sculptures for gift giving this season.
The Yellow Lab Crayon Dog sculpture by Herb Williams made of Crayolas. OK, it’s $18,000, but it’s brilliant and it smells like your childhood. From Vivre.
Bruno the Dog made from nuts and bolts from BrownDogWelding’s Etsy shop. 10% of profits got to Home Furever animal shelter and Genesis House women’s shelter in Detroit. Awesome!
Great Dane Mother and Pup miniature soft sculptures by Lucy Maloney. From her Dogartist’s Etsy shop. visit her website to commission an original. Truly amazing!
Gary Steinborn’s Venice Clay Dogs were a big hit when I featured them this summer. I still adore these guys.
Daphne in the Woods, remarkable paper artwork, handcrafted by British artist Helen Musselwhite. Order this one or commission your own. Via If It’s Hip, It’s Here.
D.O.G. Done out of Garage dogs made entirely from found industrial scrap metal by Portland artist and designer Brian Mock. Rube Goldberg meets Jaguar. Awesome!
Visit Brian’s website, for more information dogs and more information about his work. His D.O.G.s are also available at Chicago’s 360see gallery devoted to fine art, furniture and high-end sustainable design.
Via NOTCOT.
A gallery assistant views Love It! Bite It! photo by Clara Molden
In 2005, Charles Saatchi shut down his gallery and purged his collection of the YBAs (Young British Artists) he groomed into art superstars. This Thursday, he premieres his new protégés, the YCAs or Young Chinese Artists, at his new four-story gallery in London’s Duke of York Headquarters. It is the largest free-entry contemporary art gallery in the private hands, and there is tremendous excitement about Saatchi’s latest finds.
What excited me is that the inaugural show, The Revolution Continues: New Art from China, contains one of the most remarkable pieces of dog art I have ever seen: Liu Wei’s Love It! Bite It! It is a massive imagined city that includes the “tastiest bits” of Western Civilization, including the Coliseum, the Guggenheim, and the UN, made entirely of dog chews.
Described as a “parody of grotesque consumption…[and] created with painstaking detail.” There is something so incredibly prescient about this piece. Behold the intricacy of the structures, and then consider our global markets disintegrating, devoured by insatiable greed. The same way a pack of dogs would devour Wei’s installation if they were let loose in the gallery. It’s downright primal, all too real, and simply brilliant!
Click on image for larger view + blow your mind.
Visit the Saatchi Gallery online for more information.
When the NY Department of Transportation asked David Byrne to help judge a competition for new bike racks, he thought up some ideas himself and submitted them. I'm not sure if that was the end of the competition, but nine David Byrne designed bike racks debuted throughout the city last week. They will be in place for 364 days.
Here's a look at all of them:
photo courtesy of DOT
Also, debuting last week was David Byrne's new album with Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, available for download here.
Read David Byrne's blog (he calls it a journal) here.
This art installation of 500
plastic dog bowls by Denny Camino has raised approximately $4,500 for building a
public dog park in Provincetown, MA.
The installation, located in front of
the Denny Camino Gallery, 205 Commercial St., has been there since
July. Passersbys are encouraged to toss their change into the
water-filled bowls, creating a fun, interactive atmosphere that draws
crowds every day.
Watch the artist discuss the thought process behind his work and his surprise that people have become so "excited, thrilled and filled with wonder by it." I am not surprised at all. It's magnificent!
Via Wicked Local Truro.
Thanks for the tip, Kathleen (my sister), of Cape Cod's Truro Fine Art Studio, where their new show of ex-pat American Impressionist Milton Wright opens today from 4-8 pm, and runs until September 8, 2008.