Tag: art

Laura Sweet Asks “Who is Moira McLaughlin?”

Painting by my sister, Sheila Cameron

Thank you Laura Sweet for your awesome post about me and my dog art collages and my new film “Dogs in Art”! Laura is a trend spotter/design maven/early adopter extraordinaire and I am very flattered to be on her fabulous blog, If It’s Hip, It’s Here, especially since she included my all time favorite photo of Darby and me — that I must get blown up one of these days — this is from a contact sheet!

Photo by Danny Rothenberg

Visit her site and bookmark immediately, and you too can be (almost) as hip as Laura.

June 25, 2008
Gary Steinborn’s Venice Clay Dogs

Big Dog, 26"

Any dog expert will tell you choosing the right breed for your lifestyle is crucial. Any interior designer will tell you the same is true when picking the right dog sculpture for your home. Luckily Venice, CA based Gary Steinborn has created these beautifully hand crafted dogs that could be at home in any décor.

Gary's work is influenced by the American Crafts movement as well as Pop Art and Funk. His goal is to "produce ceramics that [are] immaculately crafted, intelligent and humorous – suitable for a neo-classical palace or personal Zen retreat." Simply great!

Puppies, 3"

Standard, 7"

Minis

Pick your color and finish.

To oder your pup visit Gary's website.

June 24, 2008
Tasha Tudor Dies

I was saddened to hear last week that one of my favorite artists from childhood had died. While it may have come as no surprise to her fans that after an incredible life of 92 years, Tasha Tudor passed away, I was completely shocked. Because, I'm embarrassed to say, I had no idea she was still alive.

I would have sworn that Tasha Tudor was a 19th century painter who obviously must have passed away years ago. Those who know her history will understand my confusion. Those who don't, here’s the story: Tasha Tudor was born in Boston in 1915, but she lived the life of a 19th century woman, spinning her own clothes, raising animals and vegetables for food and living without electricity and water for many years. In fact, she considered herself the reincarnation of a sea captain's wife who lived in the early 1800's.

Douglas Martin's NYT obituary of Tasha Tudor paints a poignant picture of a strong, talented, completely individual woman who lived a physically hard life by choice, but found deep contentment in the joys of gardening, nurturing her four children, and creating her art.

The Secret Garden, my favorite book illustrated by Tasha Tudor.

A Little Princess, my other favorite book.

Also, she was an avid dog lover, make that an avid Corgi lover, owning
up to 13-14 at a time and featuring them prominently in her books,
paintings, and Tasha Tudor merchandise, such as cookie cutters and
Valentine's Day kits. (She has a whole branded website and cottage
industry and is considered the Martha Stewart of the 19th century. I
didn't know that either.)

Corgiville Fair, Tasha Tudor's favorite book

Corgi puppy greeting cards available here.

Exclusive Corgi cookie cutter available here.

Tasha Tudor with her Corgi Megan on her 92nd birthday, August 28, 2007

Tasha Tudor, you are a true inspiration to independent, strong-willed, artistic women (many of whom read my blog) and I believe you've settled into your next life with the same spirit and drive you brought to this one. Perhaps you're back with your sea captain or frolicking with your brothers and sisters in a pack of new Corgi pups or resting peacefully as a Daffodil bulb that will explode next spring. Thank you for showing us what it means to live your life as a work of art!

Tasha Tudor's farm in Vermont. Photo by Richard Brown.

Visit her Tasha Tudor and Family website to learn more about her and purchase books, prints, photos, cards, and more.

June 23, 2008
Dogs in Art: A New Film by Moira McLaughlin

Several months in the making, my new film Dogs in Art was a true labor of love. It was such a pleasure working so closely with all these spectacular pet portraits and charting the history of dogs in art over 5,000 years. The art and the artists were, and still are, endlessly inspiring. Hope you enjoy it!

View Dogs in Art on a "wide screen" at YouTube.

See a list of all the art (full images) and links to the artists here.

As a favor, if you'd like to leave a comment, please click on this YouTube link and leave it there. I'm moving up the charts as "Most Discussed" video in the Pets & Animals category and feeling very competitive.

P.S. Adding me to your Favorites on YouTube is also greatly appreciated. Thank you : )

P.P.S. Music is Parlez-Moi D'Amour by CharlElie Couture from The Moderns soundtrack by Mark Isham. I couldn't find it on iTunes but you can get the CD here.

P.P.S. In case you haven't seen it, this film was inspired by Philip Scott Johnson's masterful "Women in Art" video blockbuster of last year. Click here to see it.

June 18, 2008
America’s Next Top Dog Model: Missy Paulette

Look at the wonderful photos one of my readers, the fabulous Westie lover Monica McLaughlin (no relation), sent me — not just dog art, but dog on art. Truly a bit of brilliant performance art.

I just love Missy Paulette's focus during the shoot. She is a real professional and definitely deserves the title of America's Next Top Dog Model. Fierce! ….as Tyra would say.

Photos taken last fall at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Statue is Mediterranea III by Martin Chirino, 1969, a gift of Carol and Howard Holtzman.

BTW, if you're in the Manhattan area looking for events to attend with your pup this summer, visit Monica's Plans for Pups, an online magazine dedicated to the promotion and review of select dog-related activities in and around NYC.

June 17, 2008
Dog Lovers Wine Club

Brooklyn & Georgia, Pinot Noir

I think Matt Hahn and Fleet Hamilton, the founders of the Dog Lovers Wine Club, might be geniuses or saints or both. They have figured out how to combine their passion for wine, dogs, art and charity and round up others across the country drink for a good cause – dog love.

Here's how it works, after you join the Dog Lovers Wine Club, you select from a list of their Bark Partners, shelters across the country that need financial support. Then, a portion of your dues goes to that specific shelter. So, you get the satisfaction of helping homeless dogs in your area and the shelters get a much needed steady stream of income to care for their animals. Oh, and you also get to enjoy a lovely bottle of wine (usually from Santa Barbara) with a one of a kind dog art label. Simply brilliant and perfect for Father's Day!

Via Vagablond, a luxury food, travel, wine and shopping blog.

Annie, Tempranillo

Sugar, Red Blend

Kelly, Sauvignon Blanc

P.S. You can also custom order wine with your dog's portrait on the bottles.

June 10, 2008
Francis Bacon: Record Setting Artist Also Dog Artist!

At Sotheby’s last night, Francis Bacon’s Triptych (above) broke all contemporary art records when it sold for $86.3 million. Bacon was a self-taught English painter who died in 1992. Triptych, a large-scale masterpiece depicting the legend of Prometheus, was painted in 1976, and, like his 1953 Man with Dog (below), exemplifies his dark, angst-ridden style.

Read more about Sotheby’s recession-proof contemporary art sale in Carol Vogel NYT’s story.

May 15, 2008
Jelly Jelly Jelly All Jelly by Jack Butler Yeats

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.

May 8, 2008
Brian Rubenacker’s Precocious Dog Art

I almost didn’t post about Brian Rubenacker’s wonderful dog paintings today. Something about them — their color palette, the dogs’ heads under the graphics, the shape of the canvases – seemed too similar to the Nepalese dog art I featured on Tuesday. And I like to mix things up. Then, I remembered the art history class staple of the split screen critique where two styles of art are compared and contrasted. So today, I’m getting professorial and looking at Rubenacker’s work in light of the Nepalese dog art tradition.

The dog art from Nepal might be classified as naïve art, defined as untrained, awkward, charming, and simple but no less powerful. Rubenacker’s work could be called pseudo naïve, a term used to define a formally trained artist (Rubenacker is) who consciously ignores traditions of fine art. But I don’t think it’s quite the right classification for him. He doesn’t exactly fall into the pop surrealist movement either, lacking the Boschian darkness common to it. So for Rubenacker, I’m coining a new classification: "Precocious Art."

His dogs are naughty and knowing. They are childlike with their toys, and as cool as Rat Packers with their martinis and highballs. They are up to no good, smoking cigarettes and getting into the cookie jar, but they are certainly not primitive in the naïve tradition, or terror-filled, hopeless, nihilistic and gruesome in the pop surrealist one. They are simply precocious. And judging from Rubenacker’s success in this style, his work is found in private collections around the world, they are quite popular. Maybe "Pop Precocious" is a more accurate term to capture his unique style. Just remember you heard it here first. Class dismissed.

Rubenacker lives in Waterford Michigan with his lovely wife, René, and his two Boston Terriers. Visit his Etsy shop and his blog to learn more.

May 1, 2008
“Illuminating the Medieval Hunt” at The Morgan Library

Fifty pages of Gaston Phoebus’s “Le Livre de la Chasse” are on display at the Morgan Library and Museum in NYC right now in an exhibition entitle “Illuminating the Hunt.” The 14th century illuminated manuscript is considered an authoritative text on wild animals, hunting methods, making love and war, and caring for hounds.

The Morgan’s copy of this lavishly illuminated (artist unknown) guide for aristocratic sportsmen is considered one of the two finest surviving examples (the other is at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France). The rare book needed to be disbound for conservation so this is a wonderful opportunity to view the pages as the individual works of art they are.

According to Karen Rosenberg of The New York Times, Phoebus’s work can be challenging for animal lovers, with sections devoted to strategies for tracking, trapping, and flaying quarry. But the violence of the hunt is offset by Phoebus’s devotion and respect for dogs. The author kept 1,600 hounds, promoted foot baths, haircuts, and ear exams for them, and calls them “the noblest and most reasonable beast.”

Today, I consider hunting barbaric. But dressed in jeweled tones and written for 14th century aristocrats, “Le Livre de la Chasse” sounds like a gem I would love to see for myself.

I love the dogs begging at the table with their sweet, eager faces. Some things never change for dog owners!

The exhibition runs until August 10, 2008. More information here.

(Note: the last four images above are from the French version.)

April 18, 2008