MEDIA CONTACT PERSON:

Jill Zinzi, President & Founder of ArtDogs of Kent

KENT COFFEE & CHOCOLATE COMPANY
work: 860. 927.1445 or eMail: jill@artdogsofkent.com

 

or Sandra Filippucci, Creative Director

860.927.1101 (tel or Fax) or eMail: cybernuns@aol.com

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The Arf-tistic ArtDogs of Kent Soon to Debut

04-08-2004 -- By BRUCE MORSE Staff Reporter for the Lakeville Journal (Connecticut)

 

KENT — There is a magical land where smoke-breathing-dragon-like dogs, disco dogs, field-of-dreams-baseball dogs and jungle dogs frolic with a dog with crystal wings and one that looks like Mark Twain. It is the land of Kent.

 

ArtDogs of Kent, the brainchild of Jill Zinzi, manager of Kent Coffee and Chocolate, is a collaboration of artists, business owners, students and residents to benefit the Little Guild of St. Francis for the Welfare of Animals and the Kent Chamber of Commerce. "Part of this project for me has been to involve everybody in the community," said Zinzi, who was inspired to conduct the fundraiser when she drove through Brandon, Vt., last September and saw painted pigs displayed throughout the town.

 

Headquarters for the project was Zeppa Studios, a ceramic giftware shop owned by Melissa Zeppa. The team met there to discuss the many aspects of the project, including a weekend art event at the Community House, release of the fantastic animals into the community with a map to locate their whereabouts, an ArtDogs Fair to coincide with the third annual Kent Summer Concert Series, the creation of a book that combines a history of the town and the story of the ArtDog project with text and photographs and a three-week auction on eBay in the fall.

 

The fund-raising talents of Zinzi, the artistic and ceramic know-how of Zeppa and design, editorial and Web site expertise of Sandra Filippucci has been a perfect fit for the project. All other similar projects, such as the Cow Parade of New York, Art Buffaloes of Buffalo and the one in Brandon used Fiberglas animals. This is the first time ceramic bisque figures have been used. Artists were found with the help of the Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery, Paris New York and Kent Gallery and Nutmeg Gallery. Each artist was given a 27-inch ceramic dog and their work was sponsored by a private individual or a business for the $300 cost of the dog. Some of the artists sponsored their own dogs. Although plans initially were for only 50 dogs, the final count reached 68.

 

"There were no rules. They were just told to do what they want," Zinzi said. Filippucci, an artist who got involved to some extent as a way of helping with the loss of her chocolate Labrador retriever last May, said, "For many artists it was a technical challenge to work on the ceramic figures, which are highly absorbent, but it stretched us to try new things. I ended up doing something unlike what I normally would have done. There was a remarkable range of creative expression."

• Eric Forstman, a landscape painter and muralist, cut his dog into pieces (with his brother, Todd) and is reconstructing it in a unique way.
• Crew Design created a disco dog, made up of small disco mirrors, sitting on a black lacquer rotating base with a sound system underneath. It plays disco music and will be lit with a strobe light.
• Dan Greenbaum created "Rover, Dog of Serius B," which has moving wings and breathes smoke through its nostrils.
• Karen Gidion, owner of Gidion’s, and her mother, Rhoda Brown, made "Arf Angel " with wings constructed of crystals brought back from a recent trip to Arizona.
• Housatonic Valley Regional High School produced two dogs, one from the advanced painting class and one from the master ceramic class.
• Kent Center School, Kent School and South Kent School have also produced dogs. The head of the painting department at Marvelwood School has contributed "Here, Here Kitty," a jungle dog.
• Actress Lynn Redgrave sponsored the painter Carroll MacDonald doing a Gauguin-like landscape dog called "Nature Boy."
• Dan Murray created "Bark Twain," a dog that resembles Mark Twain.
• Joy Brown thought her dog looked malnourished so she has it encased in a larger dog, but said, "If you look through the eyes you will see the other dog." Her dog is called "Blackie."
• Toy designer Vic Reiling and his wife, Nancy Bushnell, designed "Dog Playful," with a helmet that has two toy planes having a "dogfight" over his head. He sits on a Scrabble board on top of a skateboard, has a Frisbee in his mouth and a Hula-Hoop around his back.
• R.T. Facts Antiques built a 9-foot, free-standing garden weather vane with the dog at the top.
• Oscar de la Renta designed a dog called "Lucky."

 

Many other local and regional artists contributed dogs to the project, but Zinzi hopes to build anticipation and surprise into show. "The beauty of this is that all the artists that didn’t know each other before will get together. I think it will form a close community," Zinzi said. The Community House will be turned into a SoHo-like art gallery Saturday, May 28, from 6 to 8 p.m., with a gallery opening for ArtDog artists and sponsors. The gallery will be open to the public Sunday, May 30, from noon to 4 p.m.

 

Besides wanting to help the animals and bring diverse artists together, Zinzi said, "I wanted to bring people into the little nooks and crannies of Kent." At each site, a paint can next to the dog will offer a legally binding form to record a silent bid for the work. This bid becomes the base price when the dogs go to auction on eBay for three weeks in October. In addition to having the Web site www.artdogsofkent.com, there will also be a book (it can be preordered).

 

"This has taken over all our lives, every waking moment," Zinzi said. "My husband is an ArtDog widow." But although she, Zeppa and Filippucci say they look forward to the day the many hours of labor are over, for now, they hang on to the project with dogged determination.

Link to Lakeville Journal Article

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