February 26, 2005
interview with irene dogmatic, part 1
Paintings by Irene Dogmatic
Puptastic is proud to bring you an interview with the amazing Irene Dogmatic. Ms. Dogmatic has been a punk rocker, a photographer, a cartoonist, a painter-- and for most of her life she's been drawing and painting dogs. She kindly agreed to an interview, and we'll be sharing her answers over the next few days.
You've been making art under the name Irene Dogmatic for decades! How did it all start? Which came first, the dogs or the name?
I started calling myself Irene Dogmatic when I wrote a letter (partly in jest) to a cake mix company asking questions about food additives. It was a silly letter, but I did wonder what was in that cake. There was a magazine around in Toronto around then called File Mag. which had lists of mail artists in the back, and articles on mail art, etc in the front. They had a food editor. I sent copies of my letter to several mail art people, and one to the food editor of File, to send to General Mills Foods. General Mills only responded to the editor at File, which figures. I can't recall what I said in the letter except it started out, "Dear General, how are you and the boys at the mill doing?"
That name stuck, and some friends started calling me that and it became my exclusive mail art name. I had experimented with names before that, Eye, Inc., and Nannette Doggerel were my favorites before Irene Dogmatic became "IT". I got into an article in Esquire 
Magazine in the summer of 1974 with some other mail and correspondence artists, it was called "Their Arts belong to Dada". I was pictured wearing a leopardskin jumpsuit and a dog mask, holding my dog wearing a devil mask, in front of a painting I did of dog angels (called the Adoration of the Doggie). So, the dogs came before the name. I have been doing dog art almost as long as I have been painting. Got into painting paintings of dogs in about 1970 in Grad school, and have been doing it ever since, although I got commercial with the dogs (I sell dog portraits to clients) in the late 70's. By then my actual paintings for me were of dogs with people's bodies, and all sorts of other subject matter. The use of dogs and other animals with people's bodies has continued, but I paint all sorts of other things as well.
How did you get involved in Mail Art? Or did it find you?
I used to do a great deal of mail art. I got into that in the early 70's thru a friend who is an artist. He sent me mail which included instructions to send on to other people. File Mag also helped by listing mail artists. This was in the early '70's, about 72 if I remember right.
Besides your visual art, you've been in bands and worked with The Residents...
I actually met the Residents thru Mail Art, and ended up being their neighbor on Sycamore Alley in SF for a few yrs. I did a special edition silk screen for their 3rd Reich and Roll LP. , and spent many hours over there visiting, watching TV, listening to music, and watching them film their infamous video. (They were going to go from video to a movie format--curious idea.....) I can't remember what they called it, or if they ever finished it. I think they got onto other projects.
I was in three bands, one called SST , which was an early punk band--we actually had an EP on Rough trade!!! It was always sort of white noise with vocals. I parted company with the band mainly because of a disagreement with one of the members, but also because I wrote the lyrics and sang and you could never hear me. I did enjoy dressing up in weird costumes though, and thinking up strange routines to go with the songs. At one event in LA I wore a smock and slit it at one point and spilled out a rubber doll at the audience, as if I was giving birth! Some girl got the doll, and was thrilled. It was a concert on mother's day! I was in another group, my favorite, called The Beautykillers. Those guys were good musicians, and I am still friends with two of them. After that I was in a loose venture called The Kahunas, with 4 guys and 4 girls. We had some fun, but it didn't last very long. One girl played metal trash can..... We also experimented with sound effects on tape--one girl and I taped ourselves breaking bottles in a vacant lot at one point to go behind the music....! I found this music sort of akin to performance art....
What other kinds of creative endeavors have you gotten yourself into?
I also have dabbled with black and white photography, and video (years ago) and also acted in some short plays a friend of mine wrote. He called them "skits", and is now more into doing actual plays and screenplays in NY. (Not bigtime, still freelance, but he has made at least one full-length movie. One of my dogs had a small role in it, a Bassett Hound named Rufus.) Another thing I have done is computer art, using mostly Photoshop. I was playing with this form 10 years ago, when it was fairly new.
Do you feel that there's a connection or theme between different kinds of artistic efforts, or are they separate spheres? (And is there any way we can get dogs into this connection?)
I think there is definitely a connection between different kinds of artistic endeavor. They all keep the creative juices flowing, and can easily feed into one another. When I was doing the mail art, I did a series of small booklets with cartoons of dogs and slogans. Illustrating ideas. Like song titles, " I left my dog in SF", or sayings, "Barking up the wrong tree", etc. These booklets were 
similar in theme to paintings, small ones, I did at that time. One was called "the death of dracudog" and of course it was a dog (dracudog with long fangs) in a coffin!!!
When I did performance, I made myself a dog costume out of fake fur which I once wore at an event Anna Banana sponsored in SF. The costume had brown and white fake fur, and little pink button tits on the stomach and a fake fur leopardskin fringe tail held up with a coathanger inside.
What are you up to these days? Do dogs still play a part in your personal work?
I am still painting--the large canvas I am doing now has no dogs in it, but it does have a man with a chimp's head..... I have done a couple of dog portraits(pretty straightforward) for clients in the past few months. One dog was a lovely Bull Terrier named Macho (apt name). Another was a black poodle named Chocolate(!)--when they got him, he hadn't been clipped and his fur had faded to brown. Oops.
Do you live with a dog or dogs yourself?
I definitely live with a dog--he is a black and white spotted Border Collie mix called Jack, and I found him thru a Pet Rescue in 2001. He is a charmer and a brat--very smart, definitely would do well to have some sheep to chase--sometimes chases other dogs at the dog run... He is the only dog I have ever had with black spots in his mouth and on his tongue. It looks like he drank some ink or something!
Before him I had a wonderful Bassett who I mentioned above named Rufus. He was comic and noble, and loved people (his audience) and loved to toss and catch orange peels (thought they were alive) and he had a fine bass voice, loved to howl.
Thankyou very much, Irene!
Coming next week: part 2 of our interview with Irene Dogmatic, and how you can commission your very own Dogmatic painting of your pet!
posted by ranjit at 09:56 PM
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