7 Sculpture

Dog Skeleton Sculptures

When I graduated from art school in 1993, I had no money and was living cheaply in a studio. I was struggling with physical and mental health issues so I decided to take a long walk down the railroad tracks behind the studio. After a time I came upon piles of dog skeletons, victims of the Youngstown dog fighting rings. The dog fighters had dumped the dead dogs there.

I had worked on a major museum exhibition of traditional African art as a student intern. The bleached bones, weathered wood and rusty metal strewn around reminded me of the materials used in these sculptures. I gathered up as much as I could carry and headed back to the studio. I had only $10.00 to my name at that point and I spent it all on wire, screws and glue. A few weeks later the first large sculpture was finished.

Being raised a Roman Catholic, I was exposed to reliquaries and the veneration of human skeletons said to be saints. As I constructed the skeletal sculptures I felt a deep connection to my Catholic culture. In some strange sort of way, my Catholic faith expressed itself through these works. One of the clearest expressions was the bejeweling of the sculptures with broken glass and mirror, much in the way that the old reliquaries and skeletons of the Saints were adorned. My work became a veneration of the souls of these poor dogs thrown to their deaths in the Youngstown dog fighting pits.

I created a total of 14 sculptures, most from dog skeletons. They were exhibited in a Cleveland gallery then eventually made their way to a solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City, as part of a 4th World/ Art Without Walls production which involved 10 artists, a fashion show and sponsorship by Absolute vodka.

Medicine Dog

Dog skeleton with 2 dog skulls, nails, human hair, horse tail, wire, nails, glass, chains, cloth, wool, saw dust, string, glue, red iron oxide pigment, syringe, dried snake, beads.