“Dogs are not surrogates for theory; they are not here just to think with. They are here to live with. Partners in the crime of human evolution, they are in the garden from the get-go, wily as Coyote.” - Donna Haraway 

The only dogs I have a memory of are in the furthest part of my memory, the part that just started making memories when I was a child right before my parents divorce. We had a dog named Buddy, just like everyone else did. Buddy was the greatest dog ever, he was a maltese and didn’t shed, but he also didn't yap, and he was kind. He was one of the 3 maltese we had, each one after not living up to the legacy he left behind. Each of my parents bought a maltese after they got divorced, Captain and D.O.G. Terrible dogs, but also it was a terrible time, the dog you have at a particular time reflects that time in your life. After Captain, every dog my mom got us was promptly given away between 3 months and 1 year later. As you can imagine, it made me real suspicious of dogs. As soon as I start developing a relationship with them, I would come home to an empty house again. 

Naturally, when I began seeing so many paintings and sculptures of dogs popping up I was intrigued, and probably somewhat agitated. I have this fascination with dogs because I have never been able to connect with them in the way that most people talk about them. I respect them, I think they’re empathetic beings and can sense what is happening with humans. Most likely more so than the human can with them. I do honor the relationship people have with their dogs, I can understand it through my limited experience, through the importance placed on them by the culture. I started a running tally of everyone I knew who makes work with dogs in it and I collected them all today for you here. The iconography of the dog came straight to the forefront obviously, what does the dog stand for. It’s a being of strength, loyalty, companionship, the usual. Then there was the emotional quality of connecting with a forever being, something that can’t speak your language but speaks the language of the setting, of what makes a home. People make things with their animals in them to remember them in a certain way, to remember a certain time. They stand as powerful symbols of a connection to the earthly and the otherworldly. They have a 6th sense for noticing ghosts. 

They say dogs are man's best friend, they say mystical qualities lie within human animal kinship, there is talk of unconditional love, that truths can be gleaned from communing with dogs. Spell dog backwards. I am delighted to announce our first summertime group exhibition, THE DOG SHOW. Melrose Botanical Garden brings together a group of 19 artists from Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and New York regarding canines. Through a variety of multimedia works including painting, sculpture, and drawing, these 19 artists contemplate their relationships to their own dogs, dogs of the past, pieces that serve as memorials, or welcomings. These works explore native species, Hollywood, competition, hunting, breeding, love, and spirituality. They explore the cultural phenomenon of the dog and the phenomenon of the dog in your life.