It looks either a dream or a nightmare, depending on which side of Newburyport's we-need-a-leash-free-dog-park debate you're on. The waterfront lawn behind the Custom House Maritime Museum has been taken over for the weekend by a pack of 20 8-foot-tall dogs, milling about as if the pro-dog-park side has won big-time. The Big Dogs are by sculptor Dale Rogers, best known for the 16-foot dog that looks over Exit 48 on Route 495 from the edge of his family's Haverhill farmland.
Rogers and his family live on part of the farm property, and also spend time on Plum Island. The Newburyport exhibit lasts until Monday; it's one of six Rogers and the pack (and his daughter Beatrice) are making this summer, and he'll be around to talk most of each day. The dogs, with their bone-shaped cutouts, are made of Cor-Ten steel, which rusts to a nice Golden Retriever reddish brown. They are, he says, intended to be a positive presence that makes people happy. (Globe feature on Rogers here.)
The exhibit will be up on Beverly Common Sept. 3-8 and at Jack Kerouac Park in Lowell Sept. 10-15. Rogers hopes it's a rehearsal for a much larger traveling show. He's also planning a much bigger dog for Exit 48. Also news to those of us here at HubArts World Headquarters: Rogers (left) told me that one of the Big Dogs and another work of his will adorn the rail trail in our end of town, set to open this fall. There's a reception for Rogers and the dogs tonight at Chameleon, 18 Liberty St. in Newburyport, from 5-7 p.m.
It's going to be a busy evening. Just around the corner from Chameleon at 10 Center St. tonight from 6-8:30 our friend the Newburyport artist Alan Bull is opening an exhibit of new paintings and other work. Alan has been more or less the artist in residence at 10 Center in recent months, and as J.C. Lockwood tells us, he's gearing up for a big exhibit at the Governors School in the fall.
I'm going to try to hit both receptions before the Sox game starts, so say hi.
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