The Portraitsphere: Marz Jr.

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Erica Preo

Today’s journey into the Portraitsphere features an illustration I happened to see recently in a fall issue of Vogue Magazine (yes, I’m a little behind), printed at about 2″ in height. The feature was “The Editor’s Eye”, which is an inside look at just what a particular editor personally likes/owns.

This installment was all about Vogue’s Social Editor Chloe Malle, and the subject of this portrait is her beloved Goldendoodle Jerry by illustrator Marz Jr. And based on the other embellished items shown in the feature, it appears Marz Jr. nailed her style with the crown, table, tassels and fringed setting. One of her other favorite items, a pair of Charlie McCarthy salt and pepper shakers, initially did seem a bit out of place…until I realized that her grandfather was Edgar Bergen, and her father was Louis Malle, and so her mother is Candace Bergen. Like I said, I’m a little behind.

Here are a few more examples of Marz Jr.’s work:

Thanks to Marz Jr. for permission to use his work in this post. To see more of his work, visit his website here.

Architecture for Dogs

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Erica Preo

Architecture for Dogs is a very cool collection of structures designed by some incredible architects and designers. Not necessarily houses, these projects for dogs examine other variables and dilemmas. Within each project description you’ll read about design considerations that are normally never addressed, such as the goal of equalizing scale so that a small dog can be on par with its people. Or incorporating the use of your clothes so that your dog can feel comforted when you’re not around, aw. Or building with aluminum tubes to help cool down an otherwise too-hot pal. And the best part: the blueprints for all 13 projects are available to download for FREE and you can build any of them yourself! What’s better than that?

Designer Kenya Hara is the Director of Architecture for Dogs. Among other things, his work includes art direction for the awesome Japanese store Muji (which I always make time to visit at the JetBlue terminal at JFK), and he also designed both the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games. As he explains:

“Architecture for Dogs, invented by architects and designers, is an extremely sincere collection of architecture and a new medium, which make dogs and their people happy. By looking at the diagrams or pictures or watching the videos, people all over the world can make these themselves. Dogs are people’s partners, living right beside them, but they are also animals that humans, through crossbreeding, have created in multitudes of breeds. Reexamining these close partners with fresh eyes may be a chance to reexamine both human beings themselves and the natural environment. As our first project, we present 13 pieces of architecture. Please take the time to carefully examine the details of these elaborately designed ingenious structures, and because it’s free to download the blueprints, if you find one you like, make it yourself for your dog.”

The Architecture for Dogs website is very entertaining, dogs walking through and interacting with the various structures. Each project includes a description by its designer, info on the designer, a difficulty rating and estimate of time to complete, and also a helpful diagram animation of putting it together. Even if you don’t see yourself as the DIY type, it’s worth taking a look at all of the various approaches and thought processes involved. You might even be inspired to dream up something yourself.

Visit Architecture for Dogs here. And turn up the volume!

Typographic Tuesday: St. Bernard de Clairvaux

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Erica Preo

Dogs of NYC Project

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Erica Preo

If you’ve ever wondered what the most popular dog breeds or dog names might be in New York, there’s a clever batch of interactive tools you can play with to find out. Part of National Public Radio’s WNYC website, this project is really fun to sniff around and just see what’s what.

There’s a map that will show you what the most common names are for females and males, and where they live is indicated by label size. And after a look at this, I’m thinking—sheesh—they’d better rename the place “New Yorkie”…

There are also lists of top ten names for females and males, but they don’t stop there. Lists of names have also been compiled for many different categories such as: actors, mythology, animals, foods, drinks, cartoons, etc. To the right of each name, the number of dogs with that same name is shown. And not only that—click on the name and you’ll get a breakdown by the various breeds with that same name. Neat-o.

Besides factoids, there are also some games and you can even type in your dog’s name and breed to order a t-shirt with the results. I found out that my dog Chappie is even more unique than I thought: there’s not another one in all of New York City!

To visit WNYC’s Dogs of NYC website, click here. Illustrations by Louise Ma/WNYC

The Portraitsphere

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Erica Preo

Today begins yet another new category here on Dogs Make Everything Better: the Portraitsphere! It’s going to be a wide assortment of great dog portraits from near and far. There are so many great dog portraits out there, and not just professional ones but also simple ones scrawled onto napkins and notebooks and everywhere else…and I want to track them down.

First to be featured: this entry that I saw a few years ago at the state fair—and had won a ribbon!—drawn in charcoal by a ninth-grader named Zachary. I love the wonky ears, I love the kind eyes, and I love the smudginess and erased bits, the evidence of let’s-start-over. But what I especially love is that this is probably a very special dog in Zachary’s life and it’s absolutely captured here.

Three cheers for the Portraitsphere!

Cory Booker Saves Freezing Dog

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Erica Preo

Newark, New Jersey super mayor Cory Booker is in the news today for saving a freezing dog after seeing a tweet from a local TV news reporter. This is one guy who really jumps in and saves the day, having saved people from burning homes and shoveling snow for residents of his city. Once this pup was warm and safe he even went on to personally shred the careless owners. Go Cory!

From the story on mashable.com:
“This is brutal weather,” Booker told WABC. “This dog is shaking really bad and you just can’t leave your dogs out here on a day like this and go away and expect them to be OK. Hypothermia on any animal including a human animal will set in pretty quickly. So this is very sad. You can just feel the dog shaking pretty badly.”

Booker put the dog in a heated police car, called its owners and scolded them for leaving the dog outside. The owners said they were away from home and didn’t know how the dog, named Cha Cha, got out of the house. They apologized to Booker.

Check out the story here on Mashable, including the tweets that led to the rescue here, or the WABC news story here.

Sculptor Jonathan Bowling

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Erica Preo

Not long ago I was visiting a letterpress friend at his shop, which included a separate building where he keeps his cabinets full of metal type. This building also includes workspace for different artists, with all kinds of interesting things going on like glassblowing, painting, hammering, melting stuff, weaving things, you name it. For me, it was sort of a trip back to my dad’s workshop and my days at California College of the Arts (which used to be called California College of Arts and Crafts back then, and I wish it still was). While my major was design, there was a lot of crossover in course curriculum and campus layout so you were always exposed to all sorts of other work (and the fine artists always seemed to be having much more fun than design students).

While I was visiting this studio building, the work of sculptor Jonathan Bowling was on display. Now I’ll be honest: in the past I haven’t really loved this kind of welded-together-found-object art because I usually found it to be kind of spooky and creepy. And normally when I would see a sculpture, I would first see the “parts” and then have to figure out the “whole”. When I look at Jonathan’s work however, I first see the “whole” and then I have fun looking closer to see just what “parts” that he used to arrive there. As the Monkees say, “now I’m a believer.” Another thing is that his life-size or larger than life-size finished pieces seem to really capture the spirit and personality of the animal, like his Hound 2012 shown above. It seems playful to me, almost animated. Sigh, I want it.

In addition to the sculpture shown here, there were lots of other pieces on display like beautiful horses, bulls, and a big spider (shown hanging in the top photo). You can see more of Jonathan’s amazing work on his website. Well worth the visit.

Update: After viewing the post and checking out my blog, Jonathan kindly sent me this great shot of his sweet dog Maci in her birthday hat!

Typographic Tuesday: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Erica Preo

Today’s quote for Typographic Tuesday is by Martin Luther King Jr., in honor of his recent birthday plus all the warm, hopeful feelings here in America that are in the air with an inauguration and a new year for setting things right. I’m including this photo because I think it’s one of the most tender images I’ve seen in a while.

Here’s the background: a few months ago I did a post on Sara Turetta and the group she started called Save the Dogs. One group that really helps Save the Dogs is the Swedish-based Hundhjälpen. Not only do these guys send pallets loaded with all kinds of dog food, treats, toys, medicines, etc. they also take regular trips to Romania and volunteer however they can. In the end, they transport a lot of these dogs back to Sweden and find them warm, loving homes. This photo is from their trip just a few days ago, and the kindness of this simple gesture melts my heart. Thank you, Hundhjälpen and Save the Dogs for never looking the other way.

To find out more about Hundhjälpen or donate, go here. To see all of the photos from their trip, visit their Facebook page here. And of course, Save the Dogs’ website is here.

Faithful Friend Ciccio

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Erica Preo

Maria Margherita Lochi was known in her town of San Donaci, Italy for her kindness in looking after and adopting stray dogs and cats. One of her adopted dogs, a 12-year-old German Shepherd mix named Ciccio, was found in a soccer field near her home and is now carrying on his own vigil for Maria since she passed away two months ago. Is Ciccio Italy’s own Hachikō?

Ciccio used to attend Mass services with Maria for years on a regular basis at the church of Santa Maria Assunta, and according to the parish priest he has always been welcome in the church and would sit quietly at Maria’s feet. On the day of her funeral, Ciccio followed her casket into the church and each day since when the bell rings to begin Mass he arrives and sits at the altar.

According to the Daily Mail, Father Donato Panna said: “He’s there every time I celebrate Mass and is very well behaved—he doesn’t make a sound, I’ve not heard one bark from him in all the time he has been coming in.”

“He’s still coming to Mass even after Maria’s funeral, he waits patiently by the side of the altar and just sits there quietly. I didn’t have the heart to throw him out—I’ve just recently lost my own dog so I leave him there until Mass finishes and then I let him out.”

People in the village are providing food and water for Ciccio, and for now he sleeps in a covered area near the church. The priest is hoping to find a home for him soon…but I’m hoping he adopts him and allows Ciccio to remain a parishioner at the church of Santa Maria Assunta. In any case, thanks to massive publicity and a Facebook fan page created by Maria’s son, it appears that there have been many offers across Italy to give Ciccio a warm, safe home very soon.

Also: Ciccio seems to have another name, which is “Tommy”, and news reports use both. Details from the Daily Mail, and Sud Italia News. Photos from Ciccio’s Facebook fan page.

UPDATE February 11, 2013: I follow the story of Ciccio, or Tommy, on Facebook and it appears that Maria’s son Sebastian now has custody of him. Sadly, Tommy is very ill right now at a vet clinic and it is feared that he may not survive. I’m not sure what the cause is, but they are saying that because he is now around 13 years old combined with the heartbreak of losing Maria, the sadness has taken its toll. I will post an update here if I get any further news.

Artist Yoshitomo Nara

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Erica Preo

A while back I became a fan of Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, and what initially caught my eye of course was this white dog. He appears in paintings, drawings, and installations. At some point, somewhere (Toronto? London? Chicago? San Francisco? I can’t remember!) I saw an installation of three of these white dogs in a circle, bigger than life, filling up a room. I was smitten.

But look at this guy! I hope I can visit Japan one day and see him in person at the Aomori Museum of Art. Just look how happy these people are! And who wouldn’t be? There’s something so great about the incredible sense of scale with any piece of that size, and it would be even better if that piece is a gigantic dog!

Yoshitomo Nara has also created a sweet children’s book for Chronicle with this giant white dog at the center of the story, The Lonesome Puppy. It’s about a dog that’s just so darn big, no one notices him except for one special little girl. Aw.

To be fair, Yoshitomo Nara isn’t entirely about white dogs. A lot of his work features these little mischievous kids, they’re trouble but they’re very alluring. And who knows what they’re up to! Smoking cigarettes, fighting, swearing a little and glaring a lot. I like these kids, but they’re somewhat intimidating and make me uneasy, like the kid that stares at you on a subway and has the power to make you squirm. Oh save me, giant white dog!

Great article on artist Yoshitomo Nara here.
For some info on the Aomori Museum of Art, their website is here and there’s a good writeup here.
Aomori installation photos from flickr, here and here.

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