This piece was done for my Advanced Sculpture Workshop class. The assignment was a free-for-all to choose any subject matter or material that we pleased. For my project I decided to create a neglected dog. The dog is based on several of the many pictures I have taken over the last 2 years of similar scenes while working for Animal Control. The dog is shown chained to a stake in the ground. The dog is sculpted to look very under weight and also has an Embedded collar/chain around its neck.
Where with the Rusty sculpture I originally intended the rod frame to only be support for an outer skin, I always intended the rod to be implied mass through lines for this Embedded sculpture. I decided very early on that if I attempted to fleash out such a common animal as a dog that know matter how close I got to realism, it would still be seen as a "fake" looking dog. So by using the steel rod, the level of realism in the animal looks intentional.
The dog is made of 1/4" steel rods, cold-bent and welded together. There is also a metal stake, which I made from steel rod, and a found chain stretched between the two.
The sixth image is of the Embedded sculpture after being weathered for several months.
The detail images give a better look at the dog's Embedded collar. This type of injury is often seen in the field by Animal Control officers. What usually happens is the owner gets the dog when it's a puppy, puts it on a chain, and sticks it in the back yard. Usually the most attention it gets after that is when Animal Control comes across it after it has grown up and its neck has grown over the old collar. A drawback I've decided to presenting the dog as dead, is that I think there is greater shock involved when you see a dog with this injury still up and walking around in pain, knowing it's been that way for months.
The detail images also allow you to see what are supposed to be ticks around the dog's neck and ears created in the steel.