I need to do a final critique and possibly make some minor changes before I submit them. I’ve found that seeing photographs of a piece allows me to be more objective when it comes to adding the finishing touches.

“St. Bernard Rescue Dog”

I ended up tightening up on the style a little more than I wanted, but I’m happy with the overall feel. The atmosphere and tone of this piece was most important for me.

“Scenic Puppy Mill?”

Because of the nature of this piece it was difficult to get a good scan, but if you look closely you can see some of the puppies showing through. It was very important to me that the viewer see the Scenic Mill first, then (and only then) notice the underlying images. I worry that the puppies aren’t easily recognizable, but working with the translucency was a real challenge. In the end I built up paint and ink on both sides of the transparency and the illustration board to create this affect.

Note: There are two full dogs and one face in the sky, five different puppy faces in the main building, two in the addition, and one below the addition. Can you see them all?

I worked a little more on the Mill since I last posted (see below). I’ve been concentrating on a layout for the image that will go underneath this one, and I’m thinking it will be a montage-like image with some animals in cages, and some places with just abused and neglected looking dogs. The difficult part is going to be getting enough details to show through, so it doesn’t just look like a jumble. Keep your fingers crossed.

I’m really on a roll lately, because I’ve somehow managed to start another 5″x7″ series of drawings for the Puppies are Biodegradable Show in my spare time; but I’ll save that for another day.

Several pieces from a show from Pennsylvania called “Puppies are Biodegradable” (www.puppiesarebiodegradable.com/) will be coming to St. Louis to stop for a week before moving on to Jefferson City where it will be show for Humane Day at the Capitol. While the exhibit is in St. Louis there will be a juried show where local artists can display some of their pieces; and some will be chosen to go with, and be exhibited alongside the original show from Pennsylvania.

The show itself has been very controversial in nature, as its purpose is to help raise awareness of the evils of Puppy Mills (more specifics to come). I confess that my first response was to try and deny that such things even happen, but the more I heard the more sick I became, and it wasn’t long before I decided to join in.

It was heartbreaking doing the research for this piece, I had to stop and start several times because the imagery and information out there is beyond words. I haven’t really done a lot of controversial pieces in the past, but I feel that some shock value graphics might be necessary this time.

Concepts

St. Bernard the Rescue Dog: He’s equipped with more than just brandy, he has surgical equipment in his keg to help his fellow dogs.

Puppies Don’t Grow on Trees: Puppies literally growing on trees.

What’s a Puppy Mill?: Image of a scenic Grain Mill contrasted by the horrors of an actual Puppy Mill scene.

Triptych: Left side-Cute puppy in a pet shop window. Middle-Emaciated Dog nursing her young. Right-Greedy Mill owner receiving his reward.

Current Goals:
Continue to enter art shows and juried exhibitions.
Continue to create new works and stay motivated.
Work on building a resume and professional artist portfolio.
Begin to present myself as an artist and network with other artists.
Learn how to self-promote and build a name for myself.
Build up my nerve to approach galleries to exhibit my work.
Get my first solo art show.
Take some classes in digital photography.
Take a few classes in metals to learn how to make a suit of armor; & make one.
Bigger art studio.

Dream Goals:
Have solo art shows at prominent galleries around the country.
Quit my day job and make a “good” living selling my art.
Have my artwork appreciated by my peers, museums, & collectors.
Have my artwork in a traveling show to museums around the country.
Own my own gallery.

Misc. Goals:
Travel around Europe seeing various art sites and monuments that up until now I’ve only seen in books.
Go back to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Show my husband his first Jackson Pollock.

In “Knight” I’ve worked a bit more on shading the right figure’s costume, added crowns, and laid in a stone wall behind them. I still have a ton of work, and I’m not sure I can pull the stone to my satisfaction; but the painting finally has an overall direction.

In “Chivalry” I took out the bottom center knight (pasted in image) and replaced it with a castle, reworked some of the knight behind that, added the floating gown, added a kitten and some flowers (because it seemed unexpected), and some overall tweaks. I’m working on something in the lower left corner (you can ignore that for now hehe).

Lastly, a little update on the drawing.