
The Truth About (Artistic) Cats & Dogs
With all the rain we’ve been getting lately, I planned a decidedly un-horsey Saturday while my barn dried out from the monsoon. Most of the day was spent with me cleaning my house like a crazy person. If you’re a South Park fan, do you remember that episode where Butters’ mom finds out his dad is gay, and goes on a psychotic cleaning spree around the house? “Cleeeeean! Clean. Everything must be cleeeeeeeeean.” That was pretty much me, only less psychosis.
In the middle of all that though, Tim and I made a day trip to the Blanton Art Museum to see an exhibit I’ve been dying to go to.
I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of any art museum minus the major classics is stumbling upon an unexpected painting of a horse or dog. This exhibit took the hunting out for me, and had a really cool collection of cat and dog pieces. It started with your standard ancient fare of pottery and hieroglyphics.

Then they had a large room devoted to mostly hunting works. I liked this room, because there were lots of Springer Spaniels featured and the horse or two snuck in.


They also had some neat old books with dogs.
The rest of the exhibit was devoted to purely companion animals. I didn’t take a picture, but there were several portraits of aristocrats posed with small yappy type dogs. Those made me laugh, because most of the small dogs has this “I’m about to snarl at you” expression. Think the typical Cesar Milan episode where there’s a territorial Chihuahua.

In the kid’s room, they had this “feelings of a dog” cartoon blown up. I’ve seen it on the internet before, but snapped a picture since it was the only Boston Terrier representation in the exhibit. My BT has been every one of these at one time or another.
Towards the end, there was one photo of a woman and her beloved Springer Spaniel. The plaque read something about how “people are naturally drawn to dogs that look like them.” I’m not sure Eliot and I look at all alike, but this could have easily been a picture of me and my springy spaniel if I was alive in that era.

It was a pretty cool exhibit, and I’m glad we finally got out to see it on the final weekend. Oh yeah, there were cats too… but they were you know… cats 😉
17 thoughts on “The Truth About (Artistic) Cats & Dogs”
Love the bt picture, so cute
I loved these. Thanks for sharing! By the way, really like your use of patterns in your living room. Tres chic!
Thanks! I give my mom most of the credit with the patterns. I gave her an idea of things I liked and she picked out all of the fabrics because she is a fabric and sewing wizard.
Those BT drawings are ridiculously cute!
Thanks for sharing the exhibit. Art is the biggest reason I miss living in NYC. That hyper-realistic spaniel painting blows my mind. 😀
Your abode is sty-LISH!
That exhibit looks really cool! Also, love your living room!
Cool exhibit, thanks for sharing some the pictures 🙂
The comment about the “cool old book” in reference to what I would refer to as a “priceless medieval manuscript” made me LOL!!! Cool exhibit though, we’ll have to go visit!
Meow meow meow meow meow. 😉
Snorted about the cat comment. I have cats and feel that way! Lol
So neat!
Cool!
Very very VERY cool place! I’ve got to visit it sometime. In other news… Can you be my interior designer? Please…
I own the real life version of that fat dog…
Nice exhibition!
I love the BT expressions too, even though I’m not a fan of flat-faced dogs.
South Park……love it. Williams show name is named from it haha
I do the same thing at galleries and museums…show me the horse works! ahah
I don’t know how I missed this, but I love it! How awesome!!