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September 1, 2010Paper Pets: Melissa Ferreira

Have you gotten the September/October issue of The Bark yet? It’s all about dog-friendly home design. Interior decorating + dogs? Why am I not writing for this magazine? Come on, Bark, gimme a call. I can relocate.

Anyway, toward the back I spotted a little ad for artist and sculptor Melissa Ferreira. Ferriera is the creator of Paper Pets, delicate and whimsical sculptures made with cardboard, paper bits, tape, glue, and other mixed media.

You can see more of Ferreira’s work on her website and read more about her process on her blog.

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August 30, 2010Hawk & Friends: Marnie Vollenhals

I saw Marnie Vollenhals’ work on Under the Blanket a little while back, and I was instantly charmed. Vollenhals’ paintings, prints, pillows, and the like chronicle the adventures of “a little suburban dog named Hawk” and his pals.

You can check out more of Vollenhals’ sweet creations at her Etsy shop, J Austin Ryan.

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August 18, 2010Vector Dogs: Custom Dog Portraits by Alison Toerner

Cincinnati graphic designer Alison Toerner makes custom vector pet portraits. She uses a photograph to create a spot-on likeness of your dog and then fashions the background to whatever your little heart may desire. Cool, huh?

Check Ali’s web site and Facebook page to see awesome before-and-afters… from photo to masterpiece!

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August 9, 2010Painting the Personality: Dog Portraits by Gwen Fox

Painter Gwen Fox had earned recognition and accolades for her abstract impressionism before she ever decided to paint a dog. Grief-stricken at the loss of her heart dog, a German shepherd named Annie, she set about to paint Annie’s portrait. Finding the process both inspiring and healing, she began painting pups from the local humane society. The resulting shelter dog series is all at once beautiful and heartbreaking.

Says Fox on her blog:

I decided to do a portrait of this gorgeous spirit [Annie] and discovered I could translate the feeling within the dog. In other words, I painted its personality… I went to the local Humane Society and walked down long rows of lost souls. Some forgotten on purpose while others were sure their owners were coming any minute… Their faces tell it all — how could anyone not love these dogs? Doing this series has been a huge blessing. What have I learned? I have learned that dogs speak.  They are proud, they are scared, they are screaming for us to care. The young ones just look and say “let’s play”….. totally unaware of their circumstances.

Sorry for making you cry on a Monday at all.

Gwen lives in Colorado Springs, CO. You can check out more of her work on her website and blog.

(Thanks, Ann, for the find!)

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July 29, 2010Freaking Amazing: Amelia Santiago’s Felted Wool Dog Sculptures

I remember seeing Amelia Santiago’s felted wool dog sculptures a while back somewhere on these here interwebs — I can’t remember where it was, but then I often can’t remember whether I’ve fed the dogs or not. Anyway, I was stoked when she contacted me and jogged my memory, ’cause her work is seriously amazing, y’all.

Amelia creates these tiny little canines from wool fibers with a needle. A NEEDLE. Do you know what I can do with a needle? Pretty much NOTHING. I can Frankenstein the pups’ toys back together, and that’s really it. (What I need to know is if Amelia can make sculptures out of dog hair. I’ve got enough here to fabricate a veritable tiny-dog army.)

But I’ve digressed. Amelia uses photographs sent to her by clients to create custom sculptures of their dogs. (You can check out the client gallery on her site to see the amazing likenesses.) She’s sculpted dozens of breeds and a totally squeal-worthy passel of mutts, too.

I AM IN AWE, y’all.

Amelia Santiago lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Go visit her website and be amazed.

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July 28, 2010Wicked Sweet: Habitat K-9 Series by Bethany Ng

I think I’ve mentioned before my intense desire to be a professional skateboarder. Alas, however, I have zero tolerance for pain, decidedly inadequate health insurance, and haven’t been on a skateboard in approximately 21 years.

I love Bethany Ng’s spring 2010 K-9 Series deck designs for Habitat Skateboards. Beth is a freelance graphic designer, illustrator, and dog lover in Portland, OR.

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July 21, 2010Phodography: Andrew Pinkham

Philadelphia photographer and illustrator Andrew Pinkham is  a really nice guy, so I wish his photographs didn’t challenge me so much. See, I’m pretty much a purist when it comes to photography — I don’t typically go for staging or a bunch of postproduction shenanigans. Pinkham’s work, as you can see, pretty much blows all my self-subscribed “rules” out of the water — and yet I still like it.

Inspired by 18th-century portraiture and painters like George Stubbs and John James Audubon, Pinkham employs poetic landscapes, occasional props, and postproduction layering to create psedo-historical portraits of pets and people.

Pinkham states, “One of the things that I purely enjoy about making this work is that it is historical in its look, feel and approach. The client determines how they want their animal portrayed, and the rest is, well, history, and a very personal history at that.”

No matter how somber, regal, comedic, or even a little bit absurd the final product may be, each piece starts with an honest, soulful capturing of his subject’s personality, telling a distinct story that reflects the powerful roles our pets play in our lives. Pretty sure that’s what I like about it — my “rules” be damned.

You can check out more of Pinkham’s work on his website and his blog.

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July 9, 2010Poor Dog Farm

Lemme tell you, squirrels… I had to drive almost 4 hours for work yesterday, got back around 9 p.m., and then went to a rock ‘n roll (OK, bluegrass) show… I’m tahrd. Sooo tahrd. So I’m not going to lie: I’m kind of phoning this blog post in.

Lemme tell you who doesn’t phone it in, though (see? horrible segue.  I’m TAHRRRD) — Poor Dog Farm. This Etsy shop from “rural, rural PA” features charming illustrations of all kinds of creatures in hats, dresses, and other finery, from rabbits to birds to sharks. But! Look closely! There are some pups to be found, too.

See more at Poor Dog Farm.

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June 30, 2010Awesome & Rad: Alfie & Rex

Alfie & Rex is a neat little Etsy shop featuring the photo silkscreen designs of Brooklyn’s Lisa Futterman. Her shop features doggie designs on dry goods ranging from shirts (both human and canine) to totes to pillows and patches.

Lisa currently has silkscreen designs for around 50 dog breeds, meaning she could wear a different dog, like, almost every Monday. You know, if she wanted to.

Check out more at Alfie & Rex.

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June 16, 2010Super Fun Marc Tetro Cut-Out Giveaway!

Y’all know Marc Tetro’s illustrations, right? Well, he’s recently introduced these awesome little 3D doggie cut-outs, and he sent us a handful of them to give away here on phetched! Awesome. Now you can have a little doggie on your desk, or on your bookshelf, or on your dashboard, or wherever you might need a miniature little doggie in your life.

The cut-outs stand about 5-6 inches tall, come flat-packed and are super easy to assemble. You can see them all here.

Oh, hai – how adorable is this little guy? Answer: very.

We’ll have 3 winners for this giveaway, with each winner receiving two different cut-outs (pug, black lab, dachshund, boxer, Boston terrier, schnauzer, and Westie).

There are two ways to enter the giveaway:

1- Comment on this post (and mention your cut-out preference/s,  if applicable).

2- Tweet the following: Hey, dog people! Win fun new Marc Tetro dog cut-outs from @phetched here: http://bit.ly/au19c1

You can enter up to two times (a comment and/or a tweet). The contest ends Sunday, June 20th, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, whereupon 3 winners will be randomly drawn! (I’ll try my best to meet the winners’ requests for particular dogs, but I can’t promise anything, ’cause I only have one of each.)

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