COLUMBIA

Dog Face, by Debra Sloan.

Return to the Dogs, Contd from Page 4.

the dog image as my central notion for 20 years. Consequently, on
the next go around, I was able to bring to the image more context, ex-
perience and skill. I had been making [human] figurative work for
some time using thin slabs fluted edge to edge for height, and chose the
same process to work the next life-size dogs. In Tom Dog, 1998, the
body, legs, head and tail were made as hollow tubes and assembled while
still soft. The surface was carved with painted-on coloured slips, mimick-
ing my own dog’s colouring. It was a direct process, quick and im-
mediate, focused on rapid gesture, and the effect of life-scale. There is no
base or division of space between the sculpture, its environs, or the viewer.

One historic model I am attached to is that of the rough and ready
19th century Staffordshire figurine where, in order to speed up the
making process, various contrivances were enlisted to prop up figures
during construction. The result of those methods was that the central
narrative of the work is enriched and invigorated by the props. They
become little imaginative worlds.

Wanting to push the dynamics of the dog image further, I looked
for ways to raise it up on to its legs. A tapered form made height easy
to engineer, and after the shape of the legs was marked, they were bent
into a pillar-shape. As they hardened, I started to cut away the support-
ing clay that was extraneous to the dog-parts. In Hermes at Rest, 2001.
I have a leggy dog scratching its nose. Here I chickened out because of
the extreme angle of the front legs, and made a ‘Staffordshire’ decision
to not cut away all the clay, but left wing-like shapes, which begged to
be carved and, suddenly, a mythical Mercury or Hermes was suggested.
Choice and opportunity, as a process, affected how the work evolved
and started a series of mythical dogs. I textured and applied coloured
slips to Hermes At Rest, in homage, but a poor substitute, for the marvel
of pattern and swirl in the brindled coat of my own rescue greyhound.
Again without a base, the dog image has a fluid relationship with the
space around it.

‘The pair of Grande Chihuahuas, 2002, started life as tapered slabs
as well. When the supporting clay was cut away it left a dramatic
space around the chests of the dogs. I decided to keep evidence of the
process, so one can reach up to the body all the way to the nose. There
was a serendipitous synchronicity to the simple construction and the
directness of the dogs’ wicked anthropomorphic miming, capitalised

upon by doubling the dogs. There is no barrier, no fixed way to view or
share space with these dogs, and they welcome the viewer's input.

In Green Pastures, 2004, a life-size dog is finally standing on all four
legs. It was an arduous process of building and hardening hollow legs,
then supporting the body structure and head, as they were jointed.
During the process, I became anxious that the legs would be vulner-
able and decided to make a base. The immediate effect was that of an
imaginary domain around the dog. The spiral surface lines infer a differ-
ent kind of distance, between the real and the implied. There is some play
with the use of the word ‘Pasture,’ the soft green flocked base, and the
bovine style of pattern and colour on the dog. From its own, now
defined space and its gaze, the dog shifts from companion to observer.

Dog Figurine Supersized, 2007, was made in homage to a favourite
small, Staffordshire figurine in my collection. In the process of sorting
out how to make this dog, I decided to try a whole new approach. Like
the real Staffordshire, I wanted it to be fluid and symbolic rather than
realistic. Slabs were of no use, and I let go of the notion of working

Contd on Page 6, A New Approach

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Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - February 2009