More dog art: China

Album of Ten Leaves, Figures and Landscapes
Wang Chen
China
1914
Album leaves: ink and colors on paper
16-1/2 x 12-3/4

I like how the man and the dog are both growling at each other.

From the collection of the Berkeley Art Museum.

Forget about training your dog

"My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice
Yet no one in the world understands them or puts them into practice." (Tao Te Ching)

With due respect, there is no need. The drama of "muddling through" keeps things interesting. Or perhaps the reward for the work involved -- discipline required to put anything "into practice" -- is not clear enough. A well-trained dog is a joy, we are told, yet an untrained dog may be a) not that much trouble, b) still a joy, if a lesser one, and c) a guarantee of repeated, regular occassions in which to act out our feelings of failure, anxiety, anger, frustration, remorse, rebellion, carelessness, playfulness, freedom, in a world where there are few guarantees of any sort.

Dogs in advertising - Nipper et al.

Dogs are used a lot in advertising. Think only of the famous Dog and Gramophone logo used for so many years by RCA Victor.

About the "His Master's Voice" logo and the history of the companies that have used it, on Wikipedia.

Dog who served as mascots for companies.

The almost as famous Greyhound Bus Lines logo.

What is better, dogs or art?

No posts since April. I should have said. I've been away. I left my dog with friends. That is a long time to leave your dog maybe. Maybe it depends on the breed. It took a day or two but now we are pretty much friends again if not "best" friends, but then we were never that. At first I thought I wanted to give her away, that I wouldn't be able to handle the routine, but I'm adapting. It shouldn't have to be a choice, a or b, this or that, art or dog, no more than one should have to choose relationship or career, children or success.

The pic is of my studio at the Banff Centre where I was in residence. More about the residency on my Nevernevermind blog. Other works developing since the residency on my drawing blog His Master's Voice.