Anne Leuck Feldhaus Adventures & Art

Dogs Rule Art

This was the secret project I blogged about the other day...I was asked by Jill  Beninato of www.sitstaysmile.com to be part of a 'fat book' called 'Dogs Rule'. "Fat books" are small books of a certain size that contain pages created by a pre-determined group of artists. They are called fat books because the pages are often embellished with ephemera that make the final book fat when it is bound. Embellishment is optional... Since I was really stretched for time I couldn't take the risk of trying something new...instead I stuck with what I do best. That's Alice with my 14 pages...all original paintings on matte board, a lot of work but it was fun! There are 13 other amazing artists who will contribute, we each get a book filled with pages from one another and the 14th one will be auctioned off on ebay with the proceeds going to artist Bernie Berlin's charity A Place To Bark please visit her links to find out about the amazing work she is doing to save homeless pets, rehab them and find them homes (she is a remarkable human being and artist). Stay tuned for more info on the auction & finished books!

Canine Muses...

And you wonder why I paint dogs...this photo is a perfect example.

If you don't have one (or more)...I encourage you to adopt one as soon as possible. Not only will it make every day of your life that much sweeter but there are a tremendous number of homeless pets waiting in shelters at this very minute. Yesterday alone, Chicago Canine Rescue (Alice's Guardian Angels) received over 200 requests to take in destitute animals throughout the Midwest. Many are coming from the flood zone, animal hoarder situations, and from Tennessee where the HSUS seized over 700 animals from a puppy mill. They desperately need adopters and foster homes so they can help more dogs. Wherever you are there are animals waiting for homes and you can find them quickly at PetFinder.com. This little gal could be yours, she is waiting for you at Chicago Canine Rescue:
  

Using My Art to Help Our Furry Friends

Tree House Animal Foundation has their Annual Stray Cat Strut on Sunday, May 4th. I created the design for this Annual Fundraising Event. These folks know kitty cats and they do such good work to find homes and improve the lives of so many of Chicago's homeless felines and other animals too.

Chicago Animal Care & Control Will be using my banner design again for Be Kind To Animals Week, May 4-10, 2008. The banners will hang at Chicago's City Hall in the Loop.

Other Pet Welfare Events Going on this weekend:
Bark in the Park the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society's 5k Walk & Fundraiser.

Last weekend the  Humane Society of Berks County held their annual Art for Arf's Sake charity art auction. I donated this Smiling Black Dog Mounted Print:

Logo Sketches

I'm working with Executive Director Melanie Sobel to create a new logo for the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission. Melanie made some wonderful changes in her years at Chicago Animal Care & Control, implementing progressive programs that helped change their mission,philosophy and culture. Animal placement increased by nearly 150%, and animal euthanasia decreased by nearly 20%. She is hoping to bring some of these programs to MADACC. She is very dedicated and I'm honored to be working with her again on this project that we hope will give a more friendly and warm image to this institution which down the road we hope will adopt out it's strays.These were my initial designs...too whimsical and busy for a logo so I went back to the 'drawing board'. Stay tuned to see which direction we went.

Art Sharks at the Shedd...

I just received my invite to the cocktail portion of Friday night's Art Sharks Fundraising event at the Shedd Aquarium. This is a thank you for donating my painting "More Frisbee Focused Pups". The premise of the event is a clever concept ... complete with 10 second induced feeding frenzy. Names are drawn from a hat every 10 seconds... those called dart over to their preferred piece of art and tag it.  Tickets are $600 for two guests and one piece of art, $450 for one guest and one piece of art or $3000 for a table of ten and five pieces of art. Quite a nice return for the price of admission and a lot of fun. Check out the Program of available art.

Petey...Alice's 2nd cousin once removed?

I subscribe to the Chicago Canine Rescue Newsletter, today's jarring statistic: Only 16% of owned dogs are adopted from animal shelters! I just can't get my mind around that number, it makes me very sad.

This adorable guy, Petey, is available for fostering. He looks so much like Alice did at that age, breaks my heart. Izzy, our senior who we think turns 14 sometime this year (98 in dog years) has about all she can take with Alice careening around the house. The vet we adopted her from estimated her age at 9-12 months in November of 1995. So in the mean time, I'll just try to spread the word about all these sweet pups looking for homes. This is Alice the night she was brought to our home for fostering, she was about 3 months old...you can't get cuties like this from breeders.

Adopt A Pet In The Park...

I donated the design of this Ad for Chicago Animal Care & Control's upcoming pet adoption event in Lincoln Park on October 14th. The full design has a lot more text etc. I made this one for postcards and another for possible t-shirt printing. Watch for it in an upcoming issue of the Chicago Reader. I hope it brings lots of people out for the event so more of Chicago's homeless pets find good homes.

Chi-Town Kitty

Here she is...my donated pieces for the Treehouse Animal Foundation's Annual Cats on Parade: Day / Night / Half & Half:
 

Chicago on the Feline

Ever the procrastinator...I started painting the fiberglass cat for the Treehouse Animal Foundation Cats On Parade event today. Did some serious sketching last night and decided to paint the city on the cat...as I was working I decided to go for a half day half night effect. I'm pretty happy with it...post varnish pictures tomorrow before delivery.
 

Before the lights went out!

Just before we lost power from the crazy storm that passed through Chicago on Thursday of last week I got to read the article 'One Honkin' Big Picture' that Bill Hageman of the Chicago Tribune posted on his "Unleashed" Blog. I'm not very good at interviews and didn't look online for tips until AFTER I spoke with him...(genius huh?, now I know for next time!)

We also got a very exciting call from The Ellen Show a week ago, but have not heard back since so I won't get my hopes up too high...but it would be so great to get any kind of exposure on her show! She is a wonderful animal advocate...

Rock the Cats-Bah!

I just finished designing this invitation for the Paws L.A. "Pet Art 9" Pet Art Auction Event...their theme: "Rock the Cats-bah". The event is in November and raises money for programs to keep financially or physically debilitated people and their animal companions together, a wonderful cause and so important for both the pets and their guardians. (And yes, I've had the Clash's
"Rock the Casbah" running through my head for the last 3 days!)

Plaster Cat

The other day, Ollie from Treehouse Animal Foundation delivered a plaster cat for me to paint for their fundraiser coming up in the fall. This one is much more realistic than last year's larger than life feline. I'm not sure how I'm going to paint it... the other one was all flowers, I called it "Botani-cat". Alice was a bit more curious about this kitty than Izzy, she loves cats and misses Oliver, we all do - it'll be a year on Monday since he left us.               

11 Acres

It can't get much bigger than this...What a week I've had here in rural Illinois at the Fields Project. I will detail more about how we created this field sculpture in a later post, but let me just say this was a community effort, a lot of hard work, 2 full days in the hot sun in the field gridding out this design with flags then mowing the design. I was one of 3 women and a student who did designs, I'll show the others when I have photos and more time to post. I'm running back out to the country to paint, only a day and a half left before our art fair on Sunday and then back to the city...with the most amazing memories and greater appreciation for the land, the farmer, this special community around Oregon, Illinois and art making!

"This 11 acre field sculpture, by Chicago artist Anne Leuck Feldhaus, was created to encourage people to adopt from their local animal shelters and rescue groups."

View my Flickr Photo Journal of the making of this sculpture!

Be Kind To Animals...

I just biked down to City Hall to see the banners I designed for Chicago Animal Care & Control for Be Kind To Animals Week. It's always a wonder to me that a digital file that I never saw larger than 10 inches on my screen can hang over my head, 8 feet tall. Every time, I breathe a sigh of relief that it worked! I also donated banner designs for Be Kind to Animals week back in 2005 they featured Alice. Not that you need to be reminded, but be kind to your 4 legged friends and if you are ready to add to your household please adopt ... there are hundreds of cats and dogs waiting for homes in Chicago today. As I left City Hall I saw this beautiful mosaic mural across the street at 120 N LaSalle. It is called "Flight of Daedalus and Icarus" by Roger Brown, It's 27 feet high and 54 feet wide and of course all original. There are hidden gems like this all over  Chicago. I count  myself lucky to have spotted this one today.

Flowerful Canines

I recently painted and shipped these 3 pet portraits to Santa Barbara...Sadie, Chip and Sydney. Adorable subjects and I love that my wonderful clients chose the flower theme. Both Chip and Sydney are Catahoula Rescues. Click HERE to see other Catahoula's from around the country who are in need of homes and adoption.

sketch:

Older, Smarter, Better!

I just created this t-shirt design for a wonderful Senior Animal Pet Rescue Group in the Chicago area: Young At Heart Pet Rescue. All proceeds from the sale of these shirts will go towards the many expenses an organization like this has in its efforts to save, sometimes treat and foster these dears until they find forever homes. The shirts will be available for sale at the upcoming Chicagoland Family Pet Expo.

Pet Friendly License Plates

We finally got Illinois Pet Friendly Plates for our car, it's $40 well spent as "Proceeds from these plates goes into a pet overpopulation fund to provide money for spaying and neutering Illinois Companion animals." It was very easy to do...visit the Illinois Secretary of State site to find out how you can get yours. I would love to contribute art work if they ever go for a redesign!

If you live in another state visit PALC to see if your state has or is working on getting a Pet Friendly plate program.

Cool Eyeballs

One of the greatest benefits of biking when the temperature is below freezing is the way your eye balls feel when you close your eyes or blink, Cool and ice-y in their sockets. Yes it was a very chilly day - in the 20's. I needed some exercise and I had a donation to deliver, and who am I kidding - my morbid curiosity was killing me, I had to ride by our old house and see if it was still standing (it was! how am I supposed to get closure?). So I biked down to Green Dog Inc a wonderful new GREEN Eco friendly dog day care facility. It smelled like a spa (a little canine aromatherapy at work) and had such a great feel, and it's always such a joy to see a huge gaggle of pups frolicking and having fun. I met Brenda Lang who is co-owner and also a board member and volunteer with Friends of Chicago Animal Care & Control. They are having a Wine & Howl event fundraiser on February 1st at the Artisan Wine Cellar at the Merchandise Mart...call 312-224-1116 for tickets. I donated one of my spiffy new mounted prints and some stationary. I also had the pleasure of meeting Shadow - a very sweet black pup who is available for adoption. I wish I could have brought him home with me... 

Laughing Through the Tears

On Friday morning I tearfully answered the door to greet Jenny from Tree House Animal Foundation. She was coming to pick up all of Ollie's things which we were donating to their shelter which houses hundreds of homeless cats. She was also coming to deliver a fiberglass cat for me to paint for the first annual Cats On Parade Art Auction and Gala. I went from crying to laughing when I saw how enormous this cat was - and thankfully, it looked nothing like our Oliver.  This cat is larger than both Izzy and Alice. Having it sit in the middle of the living room all weekend has been good comic relief.