I love London based artist, Oliver Lett’s vibrant acrylic work. His use of bright colors and heavily applied paints give his animals a furry texture and his cityscapes a cinematic glow, like his Nighttime in Prague (pictured below.)
It reminds me of Van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace At Night without the lonely-table pathos. A dog can make all the difference!
Visit Lett’s website to commission a portrait of your dog and see his work currently on view at White Space Gallery in London.
It’s not too late to catch Elizabeth Fox’s “American Desire” exhibit at the d.o.c.s. gallery in New Orleans, which runs until the end of May. But first, read Doug MacCash’s incisive Times-Picayune review to “get” where Elizabeth is coming from.
Not in the Crescent City? Visit Fox’s site to see more of her fabulously cool work — paintings that MacCash calls both subversive and “as slick and shiny as freshly polished toenails.” I, of course, like the tiny dog with the pink fedora in Pink Fedora (pictured above.) That’s hot!
5.26.07 Update: I received a lovely note from Elizabeth Fox about this post and an important clarification. Pink Fedora is loosely based on Britney Spears not Paris Hilton. Of course! Who could forget this image of Britney, Kevin Federline and Bit Bit from the 2004 Billboard Music Awards? I must have become so caught up in the Paris Hilton motif of Doug McCash’s review, that I forgot Paris wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near a pink fedora. Thanks Elizabeth — keep in touch.
I feel like Jack Bauer trying to pick which of Michael John dePierro’s sculptures to post as the 24-hour auction clock ticks away. He is running a great promotion on Ebay today, offering a custom work of your dog starting at $49. His work usually sells for $120. These are some of my favorites, but he has dozens of amazing dog sculptures and has sold over 200 to date.
And thanks to Kenneth Treacy for discovering Michael’s work and passing it on to me. So in keeping with Micheal’s PARTS of a Larger World philosophy that “All we create affects and is affected by life’s experiences.” Artists helping artists, I guess that’s my Dog Art Today philosophy too. Now, get in there and bid. Father’s Day is right around the corner!
Ronald Kurniawan’s “Awestruck” was upsetting to me at first. The poor dog is impaled. But, then I remembered that primal, mama-bear feeling I had when I first saw my dog. It was violent, traumatic. I knew my life would change forever, but I didn’t know how truly AWE-some having a dog would be. Ronald clearly does. He lives and works in L.A. accompanied by his Pug, Ruffles. See more of Ronald’s provocative dog and non-dog paintings at RonaldKurniawan.com.
Photographer Cami Johnson has taken thousands of dog pictures, but her best model might be her own dog, Max (pictured below.) “She’s a real ham in front of the camera,” says Cami. “She will sit still until she hears the film rewind, at which point she will accept her treat and walk away.” Images of Max have been published in Boston Magazine, Town and Country, and Urban Dog Magazine. She was also featured on a line of greeting cards by Marcel Schurman. Maybe you’re dog’s not so poised, but if you live in the Boston area, you can arrange a photography session with Cami and her old school camera – film not digital.
See more of Cami’s work at Old Yeller’s Revenge. Cami’s photography also graces the pages of a canine cookbook, Throw Me a Bone,
Last night, I attended the brilliant Off The Wall 3 art opening. Since 2004, founder Peter Schulberg has been turning used billboard vinyl into stretched “canvases” for artists to use. To date, he has diverted 2 tons and over 15,000 square feet of PCV vinyl from the waste stream. This year, he mounted an exciting new component, a drive-by companion art show. Full-scale original paintings on actual billboards will be up for public viewing throughout Los Angeles for the next month. On a single day 250,000 people will view these works. By comparison, the Getty attracts 4000 visitors daily.
Two of the most talked about pieces (of course) featured dogs; Dawn Von Flue’s evocative “The Tower”
and LeeAnn Goya’s “Chillin’” (at least I think this is a dog.) 4.26.07 (Update from the artist: she’s not sure what this creature is either. She tells people it’s more of an energy, but she didn’t seem to mind me referring to it as a dog. Its name is Poquitos.)
Both capture essential parts of L.A. life in completely different terms. Actually, the whole show reflected this dynamic and made it an exciting experience.
Schulberg has plans (with the help of the billboard companies CBS Outdoor and Van Wagner) to display recycled art year round across the city. He’s also working on an eco-logical art and green vendor event and organizing weekend “eco-inventor” workshops for kids. You can help him continue his non-profit creative contribution to a greener planet by sending him emails of enthusiasm or (for any deep-pocketed corporate-types) sponsoring the display of an original billboard.
Also, I must congratulate my friends graffiti artist Kyle Thomas, who had two super-cool pieces in the show and was interviewed for a documentary about the Eco-logicalArt Gallery, and James Panozzo (who told me and I told Kyle about the show in the first place) whose Lawrence Asher Gallery had an wonderful show of large scale abstract works by Philippa Blair and Steve Hampton last night. Turn out was great at both spots — hope you guys made some sales.
Sky magazine calls his style “Andy Warhol meets Matisse.” I don’t disagree, but another apt description for Ron Burns’s work might be “Man meets dog.” For, as Burns states, “Brilliant, saturated colors are the only ways I can begin to capture what each of us experiences with the dog and cats that nurture us.” Anyone with a pet knows that euphoric feeling, and knows Burns has somehow captured it with acrylics. Now that his work has become “extremely collectable” it might be time to invest. If that’s not in your budget, dress up your coffees table with his gorgeous book The Dogs of Ron Burns
Colored pencils always seem like the least interesting option to me when it comes to arty endeavors — the pale, bland alternative to magic markers, paint and even paper. But Brooke Bradford Churchill’s “Dog Days of Summer” make me reevaluate my bias. These dogs are spectacular! Got to go find my pencils…
John Emms 1898 oil “New Forest Foxhounds” sells at auction for $842,250 and sets new world record for dog themed art. Read about the sizzling Dog Art market in Brook Mason’s Los Angeles Times article.
Wood carver Stephen Huneck started out as an antique furniture picker. That experience gave him an eye for good design and a love for woodworking. But, it was an accidental fall and subsequent two-month coma that inspired him to create his series of woodcuts of his Black Lab, Sally. Starting with “Life is a Ball,” Stephen carved out a name for himself as a premiere dog artist and New England celebrity. Visit his site to see more of his life-affirming work and learn about his visionary Dog Chapel, “A place where people can go and celebrate the spiritual bond they have with their dogs.” Amen!