Snowdog Launch Day...
Its all very exciting.......
The Great North Snowdog trail begins today - yes snowdogs in the North East... an art installation arranged by Wild in Art a company who work nationally with community groups, artists and schools to showcase interesting art in different cities and in doing so support various chosen charities.
http://www.wildinart.co.uk/
They are putting 60 giant fibre glass snowdogs in and around the North East and Northumberland each designed and painted by a different artist and when they have been on show for 10 weeks they will be auctioned and all profits will go to St Oswalds Hospice http://www.stoswaldsuk.org/
And our Snowdog 'Wor Geordie' is standing proudly outside St Nicholas's Cathedral in Newcastle.....
Back in May time myself and four other students with the encouragement (and organisational expertise) of a college tutor submitted a design loosely based on some work we were doing in college about the North East and what it meant to us. The design eventually came together as a monochrome piece reflecting the North Easts industrial heritage, fishing, mining, ship building, wonderful architecture, fabulous bridges, the great north run and some of the canny language found only up north..
''Wor Geordie'' was born... Keeping it simple using only the colours most associated with Newcastle - black and white - the design was effective and eye catching. Our submitted art work was successful and then, when it came to getting a sponsor to take it on we were picked by The NBS a company specialising in offering 'distinctive, innovative specification and information solutions to construction industry professionals'. https://www.thenbs.com/
We had a meeting with the 'snowdog implementation team' a great bunch of enthusiastic and supportive workers from NBS and agreed a few changes and additions which were ratified by the overall persons in charge and then we had to wait the arrival of our dog!
He arrived - looking larger then we had imagined and to be quite honest a little daunting that we were about to turn this curvy massive rather cute pristine creature into a work of art....Over the summer we set about transferring our paper based design onto the 3d version. Armed with paint sticks, an overhead projector (from the ark) plenty of doughnuts we spent an enjoyable week drawing and painting... Snow dogs are quite in irregular shape so we started quite hesitantly, but soon got the hang of it - confidence grew, images starting emerging and eventually in between a lot of hilarity, a lot of laying on the floor, quite a bit of contorting to reach parts nothing else could reach - slowly our designs covered the dog looking every bit as good as we had hoped.
Team Snowdog from NBS came to inspect our handiwork and were able to have a go and paint a little bit so they could make a contribution, there is no advertising allowed but we were able to add a line drawing of the offices they work from, the Old Post Office building to the front of the dog as it represented some of the beautiful architecture in Newcastle.
We were very pleased with our end design and very proud to be part of the overall art installation and of course look forward to our dog raising money for such a deserving cause.
Wor Geordie will live outside St Nicholas's Cathedral opposite the Old Post Office until December when If he survives Newcastle street life he will be tidied up and auctioned for St Oswald's Hospice.. so proud to be part of this wonderful experience.
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| Wor Geordie |
Its all very exciting.......
The Great North Snowdog trail begins today - yes snowdogs in the North East... an art installation arranged by Wild in Art a company who work nationally with community groups, artists and schools to showcase interesting art in different cities and in doing so support various chosen charities.
http://www.wildinart.co.uk/
They are putting 60 giant fibre glass snowdogs in and around the North East and Northumberland each designed and painted by a different artist and when they have been on show for 10 weeks they will be auctioned and all profits will go to St Oswalds Hospice http://www.stoswaldsuk.org/
 |
| painting in progress |
Back in May time myself and four other students with the encouragement (and organisational expertise) of a college tutor submitted a design loosely based on some work we were doing in college about the North East and what it meant to us. The design eventually came together as a monochrome piece reflecting the North Easts industrial heritage, fishing, mining, ship building, wonderful architecture, fabulous bridges, the great north run and some of the canny language found only up north..
''Wor Geordie'' was born... Keeping it simple using only the colours most associated with Newcastle - black and white - the design was effective and eye catching. Our submitted art work was successful and then, when it came to getting a sponsor to take it on we were picked by The NBS a company specialising in offering 'distinctive, innovative specification and information solutions to construction industry professionals'. https://www.thenbs.com/
We had a meeting with the 'snowdog implementation team' a great bunch of enthusiastic and supportive workers from NBS and agreed a few changes and additions which were ratified by the overall persons in charge and then we had to wait the arrival of our dog!
 |
| My line drawing of Old Post Office |
He arrived - looking larger then we had imagined and to be quite honest a little daunting that we were about to turn this curvy massive rather cute pristine creature into a work of art....Over the summer we set about transferring our paper based design onto the 3d version. Armed with paint sticks, an overhead projector (from the ark) plenty of doughnuts we spent an enjoyable week drawing and painting... Snow dogs are quite in irregular shape so we started quite hesitantly, but soon got the hang of it - confidence grew, images starting emerging and eventually in between a lot of hilarity, a lot of laying on the floor, quite a bit of contorting to reach parts nothing else could reach - slowly our designs covered the dog looking every bit as good as we had hoped.
Team Snowdog from NBS came to inspect our handiwork and were able to have a go and paint a little bit so they could make a contribution, there is no advertising allowed but we were able to add a line drawing of the offices they work from, the Old Post Office building to the front of the dog as it represented some of the beautiful architecture in Newcastle.
 |
| What a team |
Wor Geordie will live outside St Nicholas's Cathedral opposite the Old Post Office until December when If he survives Newcastle street life he will be tidied up and auctioned for St Oswald's Hospice.. so proud to be part of this wonderful experience.
What a lovely looking lot and a great post from you. Very proud to have my design included and the painters did a fantastic job.
ReplyDeletethanks Ali it was good fun... lets hope it survives the newcastle streets....
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