Mollie February 4th, 2008 Mixed Media , Painting , Show

I’ve been working on the pieces for the “Puppies are Biodegradable” show, trying to expand on some of my original ideas. Here is what I have at this point.

St. Bernard the Rescue Dog: I’ve gotten as far as roughing in the St. Bernard and working out the overall layout. This piece is going to contain a textured background (care of an old collage painting that I’m re-purposing for this project) with the St. Bernard as the main focal point taking up nearly 3/4 of the right side of the painting. The bottom third of the painting will be the surgical devices and tools of the trade and the background will be dark with the hint of dogs in cages.

Puppies Don’t Grow on Trees: I haven’t done much work on this one yet.

What’s a Puppy Mill?: This one is an experiment, please bear with me while I try to describe it. On a piece of clear thin acetate-like paper I’ve thinly painted an image of a scenic grain mill. In order to preserve the transparency most of the details were drawn in with ink. The affect is a little cartoony, which I’m hoping to use to my advantage, by lending it an artificial or unreal feel. Then I will paint a second piece depicting the horrors of puppy mills; that when complete will be placed behind the first image so that only part of the second image shows through. Hopefully, the viewer will first see a picturesque grain mill, but upon closer examination discover the second image peeking through.

Triptych: For the sake of simplicity and wall space I am going to try and get all the iconography into one painting. This piece has been personally difficult for me to conceptualize, therefore it will probably be the last in the series. It will depict the poorest, most miserable, and emaciated dog nursing her pups inside a cage that I can possibly depict; with each pup having a dollar sign shaved into the fur on it’s back to represent it’s worth to the Puppy Mill. I’m still trying to decide whether the cage door is open to keep the image un-obscured, or if I want the image to be scene through the bars to add to the horror.

I’m open to any and all ideas expanding on these concepts or ideas for creating new ones. I’m going to try and post some images of the pieces in progress as well. Hopefully, I will get some images of the two I’ve been working on tonight.