Our first Adoption Event of 2010 is next weekend, bring your Valentine and your friends to meet PUPPIES available for adoption from Chicago CanineRescue. Join us on the 13th for Sweet Treats, a Raffle for Art andGifts and 20% off anything in the shop that has RED or PINK in it!
The Hand Drawn Map Association (HDMA) is an ongoing archive of user
submitted maps and other interesting diagrams created by hand. I found out about HDMA on their Facebook Fan Page...it's a great concept and site. I submitted the map below that I made for my Mom and Bill a few years back...it depicts their favorite walking trail in McMullen Park located in rural Warrens, Wisconsin. It's now #211 in the HDMA archives. They now have monthly map making contests ...do you have you would like to submit?
I found this wonderful artist on their site, Dahlia Elsayed. Her map is #173. It says she created this map to represent the month of August. She tells
us that the map represents pretty much everything that was going on in
her life at the time. Check out her other amazing map related art on her site: www.dahliaelsayed.com. I love the abstract yet humorous nature of this!
Herman, a retired Greyhound, was among my most recent Pet Portrait Orders. I was told he is very shy...I hope he will make an exception for me and come with when Pat picks up the print - he looks so sweet...
As I drove to clay class Monday night I decided this dog was asking for wings but being the neurotic artist, I worried it would hasten the departure of sixteen year old Izzy...then thought even if it does, maybe this means I'll be giving her permission to go, in case she's just been sticking around for me. (I know...welcome to the emotional crazy world of my mind and heart!)
Then Wednesday my Mom sent me an email regarding the previous post commenting that the dog looked like Snicker...her beloved big yellow lab that passed away over the summer...and I realized right away it was Snicker and not Izzy and how appropriate those wings were...and that's the reason everyone who saw the sculpture called it a 'he' including me. So this is Snick. My Christmas gift to her and Bill is a portrait of him that I have yet to create but I gave them some drawings as a preview of my ideas:
Snick was not the only family dog to go last year, Willie my brother's dog (who I'm also working on a portrait of) and 2 dogs that belong to my Mom's stepchildren's families Pretty Boy and Nimush the 3 legged dog. That's a lot of new doggie angels frolicking in heaven...and many broken hearts they left behind. Mom, a hospice social worker, has been on me for awhile to design pet loss sympathy cards, and/or a book. Perhaps we will pen one together, but not while my Izzerloo is still wagging her tail on this earth...and I'm happy to say she has been doing pretty darn well these past few months and doesn't look to be taking on wings any time soon.
My wonderful Mom with Snicker, the 'Patron Saint of Stick Chewing' last spring.
My most recent work at Lill Street...Hope this pup is still intact when I unwrap it tomorrow. I have been known to be a little too careless when it comes to clay appendages, but as my wise classmate, Haleh, commented "it really is about the process not the end product".
Last weekend I had a wonderful surprise visit from my good pal and fabulous artist, Kerry Rolewicz. We did a trade at the 2007 One of a Kind Show, I got the gorgeous piece below from her and in return I agreed to create a painting paying homage to a road trip out west that she took with her husband back in the early days before kids and mortgages (the plan was to give it to him as an anniversary gift). I was glad to finally get this painting to her, and hope he thinks this gift was worth the wait! (She noted the 4 mountains I put in each panel and the irony of now having 4 little boys...then we had to speculate what the number of trees might represent! Any ideas?)
PS I think I talked her into opening an Etsy Store...stay tuned for a link.
I was interviewed by Agnes Jasinski of Chicagoland Tails last fall and am honored to be featured in an article she wrote that appears in the December/January Issue of the Magazine titled: "Pet Artist Uses Work To Promote Adoption and Rescue Groups", I have included it below. Our (tentative) first adoption event at the studio for 2010 will be on February 13th with Chicago Canine Rescue ...stay tuned. If you know of a group that would be interested in having an event here, please send them my way!
Pet artist uses work to promote adoption and rescue groups
By Agnes Jasinski
AnneLeuck Feldhaus was still working a corporate job when she adopted Izzy,the beloved canine who sparked her creative spirit and got her to leaveher job and pursue art full-time. Around the time Izzy came into herlife, she began doing dog images, paintings, and promotional art forshows put on by rescue groups. Her images were “very funny bright,colorful dog paintings,” she says, that started out as a hobby butbecame a calling and a way for her to promote pet adoption.
“The first dogimages came from her, along with the whole awareness of how serious theproblem was,” Feldhaus says about her passion for adoption and Izzy’sinfluence. “I went to a lot of different places to meet dogs and tofind the right one, and had two cats at the time from Anti-Cruelty. …That process really opened my eyes.”
Feldhaus has now been donating art for fundraisers to rescue groupslike the Treehouse Animal Foundation and Young at Heart Pet Rescue forthe last 14 years. Her work with the rescues has been pro bono, but shealso does paintings of people’s pets. Her artwork has been hung up inlobbies, sold to raise money for local rescues, and used on T-shirtsand posters to promote shelter events.
Earlier this spring, Feldhaus also opened a storefront studio in RoscoeVillage at 2040 W. Roscoe, where she hopes to not only have a presencein the neighborhood as an artist, but to also invite local rescuegroups to hold adoption events there. The first event was held Aug. 8with Chicago Canine Rescue. A portion of any sales at any of theadoption events will go toward the rescue that day. The next event willbe held Dec. 12, with pets brought in from Young at Heart Pet Rescue.
“My goal and mission are to give back to our dogs and cats all theunconditional love and devotion they provide us by spreading the wordabout animal adoption through my art and designs,” Feldhaus says. “AlsoI truly believe that our pets make us better human beings.”
For more information, visit AnnesArt.com.
I painted this hubcap on Tuesday for the Landfill Reclamation Project...it was tricky, with very little flat surface. "Landfillart is an international effortencompassing one-thousand-forty-one (1,041) artists to claim a piece ofrusted metal garbage and create fine art. The 1,041 pieces of rusted metal are actually old automobile hub caps from the 1930’s through the 1970’s." So what kind of car did this come from? We guessed Rolls Royce because of the 'R' but could be completely off base...if you know, please post a comment. Every time I look at the finished piece I see a chip and dip bowl...maybe a good start for a tabletop line?!
