Pick a Snow Lion

I am working on a design for the Adopt-a-Pet art show, which thankfully will not be in mid-March, because that gives me more time to work on the design. I have two versions of the same design and I have to figure out which one will be the snow lion in the image. Help me pick one!

The snow lion is a creature in Buddhist mythology that represents fearless joy and is at the base of the Buddha's throne for protection. I got the snow lion body from the Tibetan flag and have put my dog Lucy's head on it, because I have always thought that Lucy had the look and spirit of a snow lion. She was also a shelter dog.

It has also been suggested that I cut down the claws because they look intimidating. Good point!

Power to the Poster

I and many of my artist friends have thinking a lot about all of the discussion on fair use surrounding Shepard Fairey's referencing of an AP photo for his "HOPE" piece. There's lots of sides to the argument and I am not going to get into it. But I did decide as a result of all of this to make my "Retool America" design available at Power to the Poster. You can download an 11x17 in color there along with a bunch of cool prints by artists I love. "Freedom" by Jason Dietrick pictured here was also at Manifest Hope. I bought that print there because I love it so much.

If you want a silkscreen print of Retool America, you can get it at Heineman Myers Contemporary Art.

New challenge

I was asked by Dr. Pia Salk to make a piece for an Adopt-a-Pet art show benefit to call attention to the plight of shelter animals. Pia was at the Manifest Hope show and had stickers of a very poignant design Shepard Fairy did for her cause of his childhood pet, with the word "ADOPT" done in a style similar to "HOPE". The organization has been calling for our new President to adopt a shelter animal. My dear companion Lucy is a shelter animal. I felt like I wanted my piece of artwork to be informed, so I am talking to a friend of mine this week who volunteers at a shelter. I also talked to a friend at work who does rescue for a breed of dogs. I have some good ideas starting to formulate. It's important to me for my piece to have a specific call to action.

Pia also mentioned some topics:

• City shelters also house many other kinds of animals like rabbits, pigs, hamsters, chickens and goats, to name a few.
• The foreclosure crisis is resulting in many more animals being relinquished to shelters.
• Adopting from a shelter is truly a form of 'going green'- in many ways, these pets are being recycled, which is far better than creating new ones (this will be one of the main themes of the show)
• Consider creating a piece in honor of a companion animal you had as a child or who shares your family now.
• Older animals, 3 legged animals, and pit bulls are all among the animals that languish in city shelters and have less chance at being adopted due to errant beliefs and other factors. Yet they make wonderful companions.
• Black animals are often overlooked and as such are among those who are least adopted and most often killed.