Dog Eat Dog

Clay maquette, 2017

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With this piece I challenged myself to sculpt two dogs representing concepts like dog eat dog, businessmen as warriors, life as a competition and business as a game. I wanted to represent this through nuances of expression: sly, demonic, playful, satisfied, joyous and gentle.  When I play with my dog Jack we both think we have the upper hand… win-win, win-lose, lose-win…

Dog Eat Dog 2017, Bronze (Available in Green Patina) Edition of 9, plus three artist proofs. It is approximately 9 inches in height, 10 inches wide x 10 inches deep.

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Four progress photos of the painting 'Dog Eat Dog', oil on linen, 40 x 48 inches, 2012

‘Dog Eat Dog’ basically means ruthless competition. Although this saying dates from the sixteenth century, at first it was put very reluctantly because of a much older observation that dog does not eat dog (a Latin proverb). Thus Thomas Fuller (Gnomologia, 1732) pointed out that “dogs are hard drove when they eat dogs.” The transfer to human affairs had it otherwise, however. “Dog won’t eat dog, but men will eat each other up like cannibals,” wrote C.H. Spurgeon (John Ploughman, 1869). (citation link here)