Backwards Dog

This was made from the salvaged limestone sill I picked up at the Second Chance Store in Baltimore, a very fine grained grey stone the likes of which I can’t find more. Because the sill was rather narrow, only about 8” square, I cut it at an angle to get the most width and height from the stone.  I also made the dog looking backwards because the stone was so narrow.   I tried to approach the form not so much as trying to make a perfect representation of a dog (which is impossible- just get a dog) I instead went for a more representational approach trying to minimalize the finer details to project the general shape of the dog.  I also started experimenting with planes and surfaces in lieu of rounded smooth shapes, which follows in subsequent work.  It shouldn’t so much look like a dog as feel like a dog.  This was aided by the fact that as I was carving the snout, a portion of the stone cleaved off unexpectedly, and yet left a very good shape for the nose- so I went with it.  Yes, that’s probably lead paint on the base- deal with it.  I wanted to leave some portion of the original stone sill to show what it was once. 

4 out of 5 for such an early piece.

Approximately 16”L X 8”W X 20”H.

Backwards Dog (2022)