DOG EAT DOG

2013 & 2018 Acrylic Painting

Dog Eat Dog 2013 was commissioned by an old music pal to adorn his brand new studio Cylinder Sound & Film LTD Toronto. Was originally planned on being a complete wrap around piece. Ended up splitting it into 3 different canvases – mirroring each other –  to date one of the largest pieces I’ve worked on.

Early concept was taking the Dog Eat Dog scenario literally and wanted to explore a dog being so fierce that it would eat itself. I dig the split dog but didn’t work with the narrative.

Tried to set it up in my apartment and quickly realized once the canvases were primed that there was no way I’d be able to handle painting and stretching and ultimately moving these large scale frames.

Luckily my artist/carpenter pal John Kennedy had space in his garage to host this undertaking. He built the stretchers and allowed me to finish these over a few weeks.

Gravity did most of the work for the oil and red drips. Client wanted to use his green machine beast and engine parts in this tale of spark to industry competition. Put in my own thoughts on industry greed and oil extraction devastation into the landscape.

The bright smurf blue walls weren’t anticipated but helped this one pop more. Since its installation, (Not shown here) I have gone in to touch up and add more line work/details to the dogs. Always nice to have opportunities to touch up work.

Always enjoy reliving work & although I used the same techniques on this one, the 2 are completely different in scale and direction. #DogEatDog2018 takes place in a fictitious cul de sac on the east end (#Leslieville) of TO.

The client saw the original and reached out to reproduce for his home. Smaller scale and only focusing on the dogs. Same approach as the first piece creating and then covering with red sprays of acrylic.