Shimmer ArtTM - RannaTM FLYING DOGS Enlargements, info. CLICK IMAGE TO RETURN
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ARTIST'S STATEMENT: "The so-called "lowly" dog achieves what humans aspire to: loyalty, forbearance, patience, devotion, forgiveness and numerous other noble traits which are so quickly abandoned by humans when in pursuit of some selfish goal. Compared to humans, I know far more dogs worthy of being portrayed flying like angels." Ranna, 1997. PREVIOUS EXHIBITS OF FLYING DOGS: The paintings featured prominently in the mid-career retrospective exhibit of the artist's work in Australia in 1998. Prior to that, the four "Flying Dogs..." panels were exhibited in a major gallery in Australia in October 1997. The panels were displayed on the ceiling, consistent with the artist's intention when she referred to the Sistine Chapel in the title of the paintings: "Flying Dogs at Sunset: Allegory of the Sistine Dogs". Visitors to the exhibition were provided with pool lounge chairs to lie down and view the paintings. However, the paintings look great on a wall, too! THE DOG IN THIS PANEL: The dog in this painting, Wolfie, was "technically" the artist's son's - a dream come true for the little boy who, from the age of five, had dreamed for nine years of owning a German Shepherd that he would name "Wolf". Wolfie was a joyful, spirited, sensitive, sweet natured angel-dog who was always sympathetic to each family member's emotions, comforting, soothing or inviting a game according to what he sensed each one needed. In April 2000, Wolfie died quite suddenly, aged 9 years, of an undetected illness unrelated to the two major surgeries he had had in the preceding 18 months. The day he died was the day the artist had her first U.S. exhibition. He died suddenly of natural causes in her son's arms on the vet's examination table. Like Oscar (see other Flying Dog.. paintings), Wolfie was adored, and the artist and her family have a permanent memento of Wolfie's sweetness and playfulness in the form of this painting. (1) (Excerpt) "...Lachlan's Flying Dogs at Sunset: Allegory of the Sistine Dogs ... illusion using light reactive paint, humor, and metaphor. The Sistine dogs reflect human traits or perhaps vice versa. The everyday transcends itself to become meditational and endless." (Gallagher, J. 1997.) (2) (Excerpt) "...the work of a passionately committed artist. ... Here the journey begins on the wall and flies up to the ceiling. ...Lachlan's work had journeyed out of the human body, basing itself on calligraphic gestures and the equivalent sounds in a higher dimension. Here, however, the introduction of the artist's dogs into the work puts her project in a different key." (Ruinard, E. 1997.) (3) (Excerpt) "...
Lachlan's Flying Dogs at Sunset: Allegory of the Sistine Dogs
continues the artist's employ of light reactive paint shimmering in
the darkness ... the dog pieces on the ceiling show this artist working
at a different speed. The elevation of the dogs forces ... the upturning
of our gaze to view the work... [and] it is tempting to read
the appearance of the dogs as a de-territorialization of the human body
or a movement out of embodiment into the transcendent." (Ruinard, E.
1997.)  DETAIL from CENTER of painting CLICK IMAGE TO RETURN TO
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