Elizabeth Marruffo

SHOP IS OPEN!!!

Thanks for visiting :) You can now buy a Corazon pup for $40 which will form part of the installation in June. There are still spots for me to sculpt the dog from your childhood for $100 which will also be part of the exhibition in June.

The exhibition will open for supporters only on 31st May (twilight opening) and 1st June (family day - with activities for kids). It will then run until the 11th of June and will be included as part of the Perth Winter Arts Festival. YAY!

Please take a look at my blog on my website where I am updating the progress of the custom pups that I make:
www.elizabethmarruffo.com

Love Liz xxx


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Update 4 - Florence painting workshop

Hi Everyone,

I have done the math, I have got the numbers! I am trying now to reach an $8000 target, which means $3100 in 6 days!!!!! Seems crazy but still want to try :)

This new target will mean I can add $1260 for an around the world flight which gets me to Florence as well as Mexico. I have had a place confirmed at The Angel Academy of Art in Florence which offers a 2 week intensive academic painting workshop with an amazing instructor. You can find out more about this workshop here:

http://www.angelartschool.com/workshop3_2013.html

This target also allows for the $2000 workshop fee and $740 for accommodation in Florence.

I do hope this new target also means I will get more of your dogs to sculpt! The more of your dogs I have the better this installation will be, please spread the word and thank you if you have already done so!

Let's try :)

Liz xxx


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update 3 - Your dogs!

Hi!

Here are some commissioned pups I have made so far :)
The first dog is from a supporter whose neighbours shih tzu dog who would sneak over and steal his persimmons, there was no picture to work from.
The next dog is of a supporters beloved family pet Sheesha.
The third dog is tiny Crobi in his basket, Crobi was this supporters 7th birthday present.
Please keep more coming, I still have 120 spots that need to be filled for this installation and I LOVE making them!

Liz x

Updates 2 - Follow my blog :)

Hello again,

Here is the link to my blog and website where I have just posted pics of a commissioned pup I made on Tuesday.

http://elizabethmarruffo.com/blog/

This was SO much fun, please send more my way!

Liz x


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Updates 1 - YAY!


I am SO happy to have reached my minimum target, thanks to all the wonderful people who have supported me so far :)

I am especially amazed that we have achieved this in the first two weeks of a five week campaign!

So, now I REALLY want to focus on making this installation an incredible, immersive experience and for it to be bursting with stories and tiny sculptures of beloved pups.

I still have 125 spots for YOUR dogs so PLEASE get involved if you can. Let's see how many spots can be filled in the next 17 days!

Your help means everything, please share if you know of anyone who may be interested in being a part of this project :)

Liz x



________________________________________________________________________________________

Hello my name is Liz, I am an artist living in Perth.

I am half Mexican and half English and my work draws a lot from my memories of growing up in Mexico.

One of the symbols that occurs a lot in my work is the dog. The dog features in many of our stories, myths and even religions. A story that resonates with me is the Aztec story of Xolotl who is the dog that helps the deceased person through the challenges of  journeying through the various levels of the underworld.

The dog Xolotl acts as a guide, a way finder and companion and would hold a torch in its mouth to light the way.

Mexican street dogs have been important in my life and also important subjects in my art practice. The dog from my childhood was named Corazon, she had a black love heart shaped patch on the side of her body. Corazon means 'heart' in Spanish. She was the puppy of Twotwo, a street dog that my parents found and nearly ran over on a dirt road in Mexico.

I think that if you had a dog in your childhood they often contribute really significantly to your earliest memories and they act as a kind of witness to the events that happen in your childhood. They contribute so much to your personal and spiritual development are a way we can learn about love, nurturing and responsibility. Significantly they are also often the first love of our life that dies.

So in this project 'pup pup is the boss of the stars' I want to celebrate this relationship and tap into this collective memory of dog ownership.

 

It is similar to a project I did before on a smaller scale where I made 50 Millys out of felt and I suspended them in silver wire stars and hung them on silver thread to hang over a painted dogs house that had a lit element inside. The house was on stripes of receipt paper with little animal bone drawings all over them.

The 'pup pup is the boss of the stars' exhibition will have a few hundred needle felted Corazons in silver wire stars that I will suspend in the gallery space with silver thread. In the centre of all these Corazons I want to recreate the canis major constellation. With this part I want to include the dog from your childhood. There are 152 stars in the constellation so there are 152 spots for your dogs.

I will need you to send me an image of your dog and also a story or memory if you want to share it. I will then needle felt a small sculpture of your dog to include in the constellation. You can follow the progress on my blog and come to the opening of the show. Bring a telescope to the opening, enjoy a Mexican hot chocolate and tuck yourself in under a blanket of stars as you gaze up at the canis major constellation filled with the spirits of the dogs from our childhood.

Once the exhibition is finished I will then mail your dog to you, in its star along with a watercolour and silver leaf painting, which is a little background that can all fit into a standard 15cm x 15cm frame.

By supporting this project you will not only contribute to the making of the exhibition itself but you will make the funds available for me to get back to Mexico!!

I have been accepted into the artists residency of my dreams in Oaxaca, Mexico at Arquetopia and this residency is particularly important to my arts practice at this time as I am exploring the three dimensional and installation based approach to my practice. I have recently used hand carved wooden frames in my work and so want to learn woodcarving skills to be able to incorporate this more into my future work. At Arquetopia they offer workshops by skilled artisans in a woodcarving technique where they carve sculptures called 'alebrijes'. These are fantastical, magical, stunningly detailed, elaborate and intricate children’s toys, but they have become so much more than that, they are objects which can work on many different levels. I’ve seen artists use them to make really engaging objects that talk about political issues and as objects that can make some kind of social commentary in a playful way.

The costs of this project include:

project materials: $650

flights: $1800

residency materials, workshops, accommodation and tutoring: $2300

TOTAL: $4750

If I raise more than the minimum $4000 that I need, I will be able to put the money towards staying longer in Mexico to research traditional painting techniques and also put money towards an academic painting workshop in Florence, Italy.

It is my hope that by being immersed in the history of these objects and by acquiring skills from these amazing artisans in the actual place where they come from I will be able to use these processes and skills in my future work in a sensitive and respectful way.

I’m really excited about this project and hope you are excited about being part of 'pup is the boss of the stars', I am also aching to get back to Mexico for this residency and really need your help to make that happen.

Thank you so much for your time and I hope to hear from you and your dog soon, bye. x