Tom Shelton

Tom Shelton

GOOD BREEDING

Statement:

Since my pondering loses its way in larger issues of life, where I search for certainty and there is none, and where I seek meaning in vain, my meditation finds itself lying among dogs.

The question, "How and why have dogs been bred and sorted into their different breeds?" is one of small consequence, so I've pursued it for a little distance.

Researching and tracing the heritage of the different terrier breeds most often results in sketchy guesswork. This ancestral sketchiness seems to be turned to fact through the use of stone walls, connecting gates and pathways in the painting "Good Breeding". The terrier breeds are pictured within enclosures, doing what they were bred to do.

Because these breeds are all the terriers officially recognized by the American Kennel Club, it makes sense to show that fact. And while at it, why not place them in the order of their admittance into the AKC? So, along the right side of the painting the terriers are visually listed accordingly, starting at the top with the earliest admission (1885), and ending at the bottom with the latest (1997). The right edge of the painting represents the present (2005). The distance between barrier supports along the runways represents twenty years.

So my mind is taken up with listing and ordering and is for a while happily occupied,

Tom Shelton, September, 2005

YOU CAN'T MAKE A SILK PURSE

Curriculum Vitae:

EDUCATION

     1969-72   Eastern Michigan University     MFA painting
                     Ypsilanti, Michigan

     1960-64   University of Cincinnati            BS botany
                     Cincinnati, Ohio

GRANTS, COMMISSIONS

     1977-81    A couple of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and one
                      commission each from the General Services Administration and Veterans
                      Administration.

EXHIBITIONS

     1973-95    Group and Solo exhibitions, mostly in Ohio and Indiana, and even
                      one in NYC, a total of around fifteen.