Sisters celebrates canines with creativity

Every year an eclectic mix of artists from Central Oregon honor the love of canine friends through their art. And for the seventh annual Dog Show, "A Fetching Display of Canine Imagery," 15 artists showcased their creative skills on Friday evening at Sisters Art Works, sponsored by The Roundhouse Foundation.

One of the featured artists, Miranda Rommel from Pedee, Oregon, explained to a few of folks how she needle-felts small versions of dogs out of wool and then pulls everything together into a mobile.

"All the dogs I felt are natural-colored wool, so my sable corgi that I made was a blend of alpaca fiber and some other sheep," said Rommel. "I'm an artist and a hand-spinner, and with my love of fiber and illustrating, I figured it would be a good combination. I started with dogs because we have a corgi named Pocket and I wanted to felt a little version of him for my husband one Valentine's Day. I purchase my wool from local sheep; it's raw and I process it myself. I've been doing needle-felting since 2012, and now I do custom pet-portraits. The felted dog mobiles are most often purchased by expectant moms-to-be."

Rommel's felted dog was featured on the 2015 Dog Show poster.

Sisters author and photographer Bill Birnbaum showcased three unique photographs of dogs, each taken in a different country. Birnbaum and his wife, Wendy, love to travel.

"I really like street photography, and shoot street scenes a lot, and wherever we travel I find something special to photograph," he said.

Birnbaum didn't realize how many dogs he had photographed over the years of traveling.

"I have a collection of dogs in photographs. The way that got started was in 2007 when Wendy and I went to Peru. We lived there for awhile doing volunteer work, and there were street dogs everywhere, so I have many images of dogs. I have photos of dog from Norway and Ireland, too."

Photographer Greg Waddell, a Sisters resident, displayed a unique photograph, although you could mistake it for an acrylic painting.

"This is a photograph created on canvas," he explained. "It was a project I did a couple of years ago for the library when they had a show throughout the district using the novel 'The Star Dog' as the theme for artwork.

"It's a story about a man who was a pilot who had a dog, and after an apocalypse they flew over the countryside looking for survivors. What I created on canvas is three separate images. It's a photo of my dog, and the background is a photo of the area of the Pole Creek Fire after it burned, and I also used a photo of an airplane that I took. In Photoshop I did a composite and put them all together and added stars in the dog's eyes."

Noted Sisters quilter Tonye Phillips, along with show organizer and artist Kathy Deggendorfer, partnered up for the first time in a couple of years to design a fun piece of art together for the Dog Show. Deggendorfer hand-painted fabric and Phillips machine-quilted the fabric and added a hand appliqué of a dog. Their combined effort is called

"Boing."

"This year for the show we did something totally different: we had a call for artists. The Dog Show has always been by invite only," Deggendorfer said. "I'm really enjoying the turnout, just watching all the different pieces of art coming through. This is a great new group and a fresh outlook with new mediums involved."

A portion of the proceeds benefitted Furry Friends Foundation, which helps families in Sisters through providing grants for veterinary care, spay and neuter, and a pet-food bank.