Who is the Hairy Dog Mother anyway?
Meet the Hairy Dog Mother. I'm not sure where he came from, but I certainly wasn't imagining to be part of my vision for this image. He just emerged from the dark, hairy recess of my mind, or can I blame Photoshop? This character was going to be some kind of evil dog monster, but he evolved into the Fairy Dog Mother, who became the HAIRY Dog Mother, (just to really challenge those fairy tale stereotypes).
Here's the story...
Meet the Hairy Dog Mother, who brings the moon and a lone star to shine light onto small worlds that can't see beyond their own kingdom. He (yes it's a he) also likes to dangle an old bone above their world for his own amusement.
These worlds are worlds within worlds, but unaware that they are part of a larger universe. They only know of their own existence. It's not until they can see the larger moon and stars that light up their outer and inner world, they no longer need to focus inwards, and the Hairy Dog Mother's job is done. He takes his moon, star and stinking old bone to the next unsuspecting small world.
I have included some images below to try to show a snapshot the process I used to get the final image below:
Here's the original image of the island. This photo was taken by me at Doubtful Sound in beautiful New Zealand.
Here is the island, deep etched and transported into a different photo of the ocean, and a dark and cloudy sky superimposed to create a more surreal, dark, landscape.
Here is a city I created using toilet roles and a stanley knife.
With some help from my lovely Mum. I photographed this and
placed it into the image after a lot of deep etching.
And here is the Dog Mother himself. Hairy and unapologetic. I used a pear (body shape), coconut (body texture), blue berry (for nose), carrot (tongue), sweet potato (claws and tail), hazelnuts (wings), and artichokes for the beautiful crown.
The wand was created with a turnip, and the bone was created using mushrooms.
The rope was photographed and modified in photoshop, and was freakin' time consuming!
I think we might be seeing him again...