By Peter McDermott
It was mainly humans, lots of them, that turned out for the opening of the Mascot Studio's 12th Annual Dog Show recently. So many indeed that they spilled out from the small store onto the East 9th Street sidewalk.
"I was pleasantly surprised at how it's come together," said owner Peter McCaffrey about this year's exhibition of canine-themed art.
There are offerings from nationally known artists Rodney Greenblat and Mark Ulriksen, who submitted a print of a dog-themed cartoon of his from the cover of the New Yorker.
There's also a print of the winning poster for the Westminster Dog Show. That's available on the Westminster's website, so perhaps a more interesting item from the point of view of the collector is the runner-up's submission, which isn't. "She's a bone fide dog portrait artist," McCaffrey said of the 2nd-placed poster maker.
"There's a core group of people who've been showing the whole 12 years," said the Dublin-born, Long Island-raised artist and storeowner.
They in turn recommended others; a third group of artists has stumbled upon the Annual Dog Show and yet another group has heard about it as it's gotten more famous.
Mascot Studio, the main business of which is custom framing, has a lot of art concerned with man's best friend year round; in the springtime, however, said McCaffrey, "it's even more doggie than normal."
The Annual Dog Show will continue through the end of March. For more information go to www.mascotstudio.com
