Dog Art Today

Veterans Day

2009-11-11T11:11:10-08:00

"Recovered" by M. Henochsberg, 1869

I hate saying "Happy" Veterans Day because I think war is a sickening waste. Nothing happy about it, except perhaps when the soldiers come home. I hope our active soldiers can soon move into the ranks of the veterans and stay there.

I couldn't find out much about the above lithograph. The Library of Congress simply states, "Wounded soldier lying on ground with two soldiers kneeling and dog sitting alongside him."

It was created in 1869 and depicts Civil War soldiers. I wonder what its purpose was. Drop me a note if you have any idea.

My local radio station KVMR is playing songs for veterans, many of them are anti-war. Click here to listen to a live stream of it -- the best local radio station in the land (really).

The Puppies of Pillow Land by Vanda Lavar

2009-11-10T10:04:46-08:00

*sponsored feature*

Sir Beauregarde Simms, Portuguese Water Dog

Enjoy heartwarming illustrations from The Puppies of Pillow Land. This bed time story, which is due to be released next Christmas, invites the hearts and minds of both children and adults to consider our companions as spiritual creatures.

The Puppies of Pillow Land gently guides your child through the lands of fable and lore to produce a comforting story which is accompanied by its own snugly breed-related pillow. The author and illustrator, Vanda Lavar, weaves a tale of wonder, love, and unfailing nighttime protection as The Puppies of Pillow Land guard the night for sleeping children.

The pillows are available now for $15, with the book soon to follow, along with other specialty gifts based on these lovable characters. To order the pillows visit PillowLandPuppies.com.

There will be new breeds available as images are added weekly. Additionally, each pillow has a slot located in the back panel in which to store “jammies.”

You may remember Vanda’s fabulous illustrations from Tucker's Tale , a book which recently made Laura Bush’s reading list. Tucker's Tale is the story of a rescued Cocker Spaniel and was written by noted Maine author, Christopher Walsh. Ms. Lavar and Mr. Walsh donated all of their profits from this book to rescue causes.

Miss Hillary Dee, Dachshund

Angel Chi Chi, Chihuahua

Angel Molly, Maltese

Angel Timber, Malamute

Miss Tillary Jane

Ms. Lavar’s works are recognized throughout the world. Recently her works were featured on puzzles found in Target Stores across the United States. Last year, Ms. Lavar was an invited artist to the 133rd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show held at Madison Square Gardens. Her works are available on a variety of product matter from mouse pads to garden flags. She is currently accepting commissions from both the public and corporate sector. Her personal website is DogArtist.me. Contact Vanda for more information via her email. or phone: 530-919-3964.

Dick Sebastian: Dog Run Artist

2009-11-10T00:22:00-08:00

Dick Sebastian with his dog run group portrait

Read how one man turned a NYC dog run into a community. Powerful and bittersweet. Via The New York Times courtesy of my mom.

New Dog Paintings by Heather LaHaise

2009-11-06T11:03:39-08:00

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.

Intention Driven Dog Photography by Jesse Freidin

2009-11-05T05:28:54-08:00

Bellami

{Today, I am pleased to introduce you to my first guest blogger, Jesse Freidin. Jesse is a fine art dog photographer based in San Francisco. I met him last summer at the Mutt Lynch Winery's Dog Days of Summer and became a big fan. -- Moira}

As a professional fine art dog photographer, people have often asked me: “What exactly makes a photograph qualify as 'fine art?' Is it the expensive equipment behind the image or the years of experience behind the artist? How can a photograph of a dog find inclusion is such a revered category? And how can I make fine art portraits of my dog, too?”

First, let's define the term. Fine art is art produced for beauty rather than utility. For photography that means creating an artistic image instead of a commercial or photojournalistic one. To me, fine art means one thing: intention. Massive, overwhelming, passionate intention that leaps from the image and hits the viewer inside the chest with a burst of emotion. Capturing and sharing these breathtaking feelings, seeing tears spring to my clients' eyes when they see the photographs of their beloved canines, hearing the catch in their breath as the images radiate the spirit and love of their companions -- this is what drives and inspires me as an artist.

Intention then must be balanced with other elements like composition, relationship, and a strong dose of compassion. A fine art dog portrait is the anti-snapshot. It portrays a sense of undeniable devotion that captures the canine-human bond.

To help you along your own creative path, here are a few things you can keep in mind while photographing your canine companion:

• Intention. Do you want to capture your pet's soulful gaze, sense of humor, or the sleek lines of his body in motion? Dogs are like preschoolers. They have a limited attention span so think about your goal before starting your photo session.

• Compose thoughtfully. Place your dog an environment that not only lights him well (near a window or inside an open doorway), but also celebrates his own personal style. For example, when I photograph dogs with beautifully patterned coats, I purposefully place them near fun textures and patterns to highlight their unique appearances.

• Consider your relationship and try to capture it on film. Intimacy comes from bringing your point of view to your subject's point of view. Try lying on the floor while photographing your dog in his favorite bed or rolling around in the grass with your camera while you and your dog play tug.

Winston and Jasmin

Flaco

Iorek

Henry

Dennis

Thoughtful intention combined with intimacy will produce an image that truly reflects the connection you have with your dog. Believe me, this new sense of intentionality will help your images come alive. Good luck and don’t be afraid to get a little dirty!

If you are a professional dog photographer or an enthusiastic amateur, I would love to hear any of your tips too. Visit my website to see more of my work. -- Jesse Freidin

The Artist's Wife and his Setter Dog by Thomas Eakins

2009-11-03T07:39:33-08:00

The Artist's Wife and His Setter Dog by Thomas Eakins, ca. 1884-89

Dallas Art News reports:

The Amon Carter Museum has been loaned two American masterpieces from the Metroploltian Museum of Art in New York. The paintings are The Artist’s Wife and His Setter Dog (1884-89) by Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly (1880) by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). The paintings will be on view at the Amon Carter Museum through January, 25, 2010.“Both are intimate portraits of the artists’ loved ones, although the artists approached their subjects quite differently,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter Museum. “Eakins depicts his wife and setter Harry with an uncompromising realism, while Cassatt portrays her ailing sister Lydia with the delicacy and directness of the Impressionists’ brushstroke.”

While these two paintings are in Fort Worth, the Carter has in return loaned two of its own masterpieces to the Met, Swimming (1895) by Thomas Eakins and Idle Hours (ca. 1894) by William Merritt Chase. Both paintings are in the Met’s exhibition American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915.

The Amon Carter will host free gallery talks about the Eakins and Cassatt paintings on November 12 at 6 p.m.

Lovely.

Dogs + Ghosts: Theresa Duncan Blogs from the Grave

2009-11-02T00:01:00-08:00

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…

Awesome Jack-o-Lantern Dog Stencils

2009-10-30T17:21:17-07:00

Courtesy of my mom from her friend Pat Sublette. Download the stencils at Better Homes and Gardens (must sign in first).

Happy Halloween!