Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Dog Is My Canvas

Photo credit: Suzy Allman for NYT

You know, one of the reasons I read the New York Times is that its sports section is different from every the other sports section on the planet. For example, instead of perusing an article about sweaty guys and the projectiles they hurl, catch, swat, or kick, I can read one about competitive dog grooming. This one even has a slide show. No kidding. You have to see these images to believe them. They are from a show called Intergroom. It is held in my home state of New Jersey, and apparently it is a really big deal.

Now, when I look at Muzzy, I am not inspired to creative flights of painterly fancy. Her palette is already pretty bold. But the many patient, light-furred poodles in this show served as muses and canvases both. Francesca, shown above, won second place. When she stood on her back legs, she looked, with her Easter-egg colored fur, like a sea horse. A man hid behind the shower curtain in the background and blew bubbles to perfect that special aquarium effect. Other dogs sported images of Elvis and Chinese dragons. One is a dead ringer for  Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. It's cuter than Depp, but can it do an English accent that sounds like Keith Richards?

The dog below, who is not named in the article, won first prize for its owner, regular competition winner Angela Kumpe. Ponder it and then read the story to find out what it is all about and why it won over the judges.

Enjoy. -z

Photo credit: Suzy Allman for NYT

2 comments:

  1. Hmmm...I think I would have preferred the buffadoodle to the grieving angel. I have to admit that I have been very tempted to dye the white end of Cocoa's tail pink.

    Very interesting that they chose to put this in Sports and not Style.

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  2. That's just...wow.

    I guess these poodles don't get to romp in the mud puddles at the DP's of their home states.

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