Dog Park

This is a series of dog scratchboards that I exhibited at the FIT Museum to mark the culmination of my MFA in Illustration. I received an MA from FIT in 2007, and went back to grad school for one year as they expanded the program to an MFA. That added "F" marks the terminal degree in Illustration. Thanks to everyone at the museum, my incredible classmates, and the amazing program chair Melanie Reim for a great show.








From my statement:
Dog Park is a visual exploration of the canine companions who fill the negative space in our urban environment.  In a place where both private and public space are coveted, many New Yorkers find ways to fit dogs of various sizes into their tiny apartments, jam-packed daily routines, and the densely woven fabric of the city itself.  In the midst of tall buildings crammed together tightly, sections of outdoor space are preserved and left empty for dogs to run, play, and engage each other while embracing their intrinsic dog-ness.

On seven kaolin clay panels of various sizes, life-size illustrations of dogs twist, skitter, leap, and crouch, as they individually inhabit a portion of empty space in their own unique way while interacting with each other across the wall. Executed using a self-generated approach to scratchboard, ink is splashed with a brush into black silhouettes on the clay surface. After the ink dries, white lines are carved into these flat, dark shapes to build dimension. The two sides of the process come together to create dogs that move organically in ways that both defy and follow their form, dripping, splattering, and shattering to life.