* Our first DogGone Good PITStop event: A call out to the DDR family to come out and support the Pits & Perception opening night – would love to put together a DDR contingent to come and meet at the exhibit – please email ddr@gmail.com if you are interested so we know who to watch out for! You can also RSVP on our Facebook page under EVENTS! Can’t wait to get everyone together!
*Thanks to Temma Martin from Best Friends for the exhibition photo and press release!
Charcoal Study
PETEY
FROM BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY *Houses DOGTOWN* IN UTAH!
‘Pits and Perception’ Opens in Los Angeles
Artist Hopes to Change Way People View Pit Bulls
Best Friends co-founder and resident artist Cyrus Mejia says that when he was growing up, pit bulls were considered the ultimate family dog. One look at Mejia’s “Pits and Perception” art exhibit, and it’s easy to see why so many people through the years have revered the breed.
The show opens Saturday, Feb. 20 at Artology 101, 3108 Glendale Blvd. in Los Angeles, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. The gallery will be open that evening until 10 p.m.
The show will be on display until March 18. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
MYA
“For me, pit bulls have always been ‘Petey on the ‘The Little Rascals’ rather than the dogs that have become associated with dog fighting and gangs,” says Mejia, who was part of a group of nearly two dozen individuals who founded Best Friends Animal Society in 1984. The organization is well known as the largest companion animal sanctuary in the United States, as well as home to a number of the pit bulls seized from the Michael Vick dog fighting case. Best Friends’ work with dogs is chronicled on the National Geographic Television series, “DogTown,” which entered its fourth season in January.
CURLY
After watching the reputation of the pit bull change in a very short period of time, Mejia reasons: “If perceptions can change once, can’t they change back? That’s what I’m trying to do with this exhibit,” he says.
The 12 larger-than-life (49-inch by 56-inch) canvasses, completed in the last two years, portray Mejia’s vision of pit bulls—beautiful, strong, loyal, affectionate and regal. The collection also includes six full-sized charcoal drawings that served as studies for the project.
LENA
“With this exhibition I’m challenging commonly held public perceptions about pit bulls,” Mejia said. “Georgia O’Keefe made large paintings of flowers so that people would stop and look at the flowers. With these large paintings of pit bulls I’m hoping people will stop and look at the dogs!”
OLIVER
In preparation for this series, Mejia did color portraits of all 22 of the Michael Vick dogs that came to the sanctuary in January 2008. Those portraits of the “Vicktory Dogs” are on wine bottles in the Vicktory Dog Wine Collection, which commemorates Best Friends’ work with some of the most famous pit bulls rescued from dog fighting.
Funded in part from a grant from the Culture and Animals Foundation, Mejia also raised money through Kickstarter.com to build the crates necessary for transporting the paintings.
Roxy & Cyrus
Cyrus Mejia contemporary artist, is co-founder of Best Friends Animal Society. Mejia believes art is activism, grabbing attention and shining light into darkness! His art reflects the ideals of kindness and compassion while shining a light on speciesism, ignorance and cruelty.
When asked how he hoped his art would be remembered, one of the famous abstract expressionist painters said: “I hope my art will have as much impact on society as that of an old shoe” Cyrus Mejia does not follow this philosophy! He believes art does have an important role to play in our world, that: “Art can focus the attention and direct the emotions in ways no other medium can achieve”. This idea is as old as human history. Art is sometimes the only thing left from pre-historic societies. The cave paintings, the carvings and pottery, tell us all we know about what went on thousands of years ago. And the artist/shaman was an important figure in ancient society. He/she told the story, created the myth, described the unknown, and pointed the way! This was not “art for art’s sake” but art for life’s sake! This is the art that Cyrus Mejia strives to create.
