World’s First Dog Sculptor

We’ve all heard the stories about dogs who paint. There have been exhibits, sales – even whole books of the paw-smeared works of “art” made by putative Picasso pups. But finally the art world has something new to bark about. Introducing the world’s first Dog Sculptor.

Chew On This

Millie the Chow-Chow is not your average house pet. She has two great passions: chewing stuff and watching TV along with her owner, Abigail Blaine of New Grinmouth, Massachusetts. Those hobbies may sound downright ordinary, but Millie has elevated chewing to a whole new level – in fact, to a new art form.

Millie and Abigail live on a fifteen acre ranch. When Millie isn’t inside, curled up next to the warm glow of the fire and the cool glow of the television screen, she’s roaming around the ranch, chewing on trees. Abigail used to find this penchant for destruction bothersome both for the woods around her home and for Millie’s dental health. But one day all that changed…

It was a brisk autumn day when Abigail noticed Millie’s first “creation.” Abigail explains:

Only the night before, we’d been watching a National Geographic special about the Inuit First Nation in Canada. Millie seemed especially interested in the “snow goggles” they wore, to reduce the glare of the sun on the ice. She ran outside when the show was over and was gone for hours. In the morning, I found her fast asleep on her bed, her muzzle covered in bits of bark.

It was another couple of days before Abigail found the source of the bark shavings. Millie had just completed her first portrait.

Inuit Wearing Snow Goggles

Millie’s Venus

Other sculptures followed quickly on the heels of the Inuit carving. Millie chewed a birch tree into an uncanny likeness of Regis Philbin. She then gnawed a loving portrait of Ellen Degeneres out of an old hickory stump. But her grasp of the female form didn’t reach its pinnacle until she and Abigail had spent an entire weekend watching an Ugly Betty marathon.

The result? An unbelievably realistic rendering of Vanessa L. Williams.

Vanessa Williams in Ugly Betty

Pop Art?

Abigail called up a friend, Dennis Caswell, who runs an art gallery in town. Dennis was so impressed that he launched a gala showing of Millie’s creations. Her first show sold out completely, with the Vanessa Williams portrait fetching an incredible $5,200, making it the highest price ever paid for a work of dog sculpture.

Abigail had never known much about the art world, but she and Millie got a quick education, with the help of their friend Dennis. They began to attend shows in Boston and New York together. Millie seemed especially fond of Pop Art, especially the oversize sculptures of Claes Oldenburg. But when she saw the toy balloon dog sculptures by Jeff Koons, she was smitten!

Millie spent two whole days in the woods following the Koons show in New York. Although Abigail can’t be certain, she swears that this, Millie’s latest sculpture, is a fond portrait of her new idol, Jeff Koons:

Thought to be a portrait of artist Jeff Koons

If you are interested in seeing more of Millie’s art, or even owning one of her incredible dog sculptures, you won’t have to wait long. The Republic of Tongo has just announced that Millie’s Inuit Sculpture has been selected as the image for their new 11 cent stamp!

The Zoom Room congratulates Millie, and all the other fictitious dogs who live on in our imagination!