The best speaker at yesterday’s Shaping the Future of Portsmouth Annual Conference had to be the artist My Dog Sighs.
For the past 10 years he has been quite literally giving away his art and now he is reaping the rewards - (pictured is an example of his work I was lucky enough to come across ...)
Dressed in paint-spattered trousers and a natty hat worn at a jaunty angle, the artist known to his mother as Paul, shared his compelling story of giving up a career in teaching to follow his dream of becoming an artist ... only to be forced back into the classroom when his paintings were rejected by the art establishment.
He pushed the dream to the back of his thoughts got married, had kids, took on a mortgage and settled down.
But on a trip to London he was mesmerised by a piece of Banksy’s famous street art and felt compelled to get painting again.
He loved the way Banksy had taken his art to the people via the streetscape rather than traditional galleries.
Not wanting to deface anyone’s property he started leaving his paintings and Can Man creations on the street for the public to pick up and take home.
His altruism spawned a global phenomenon – and Free Art Friday was born. Now thousands of artists across the world leave pieces of art on the street with the express wish they are picked up.
(He admitted he wanted to see who it was who picked up his artwork and one Friday he decamped to a cafe to see who would pick up his artwork – only to be disappointed when a road sweeper popped it in his dustcart).
Free Art Friday was featured on the BBC Culture Show programme and this resulted in a prestigious London gallery putting on a one -man exhibition that sold out in just one hour.
My Dog Sighs has since had exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Tel Aviv and he has just been asked to exhibit in Denmark.
Check out this cool video to get an idea of what My Dog Sighs is all about.
My Dog Sighs is a winner...I have 3 of his tremendous pieces and 2 were free!!. God bless 'My Dog Sighs' and all tremendous artists!!
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