BIG MEN, LITTLE DOGS
ESPAÑOLA SHELTER CONNECTS WITH COMMUNITY THROUGH PORTRAITS OF LOCAL MEN AND THEIR PETS
Twenty portraits of men of the Española Valley and their beloved Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes have turned the walls of a busy animal shelter into a warm reflection of the community.
An opening reception for “Man’s Best Amigo,” at the Española Valley Humane Society on Father’s Day drew the subjects of the black-and-white portraits, their families, including the featured pets, and supporters of the 25-year-old animal shelter.
From young teenagers to older gentlemen, some sporting tattoos or the sun-hardened features of a farmer, the men are posed with a single dog or two or three. The portraits show companionship and mercy — and a tiny dash of humor and sex appeal, said Jane Bernard, the photographer who conceived and produced the photographs.
“I wasn’t interested in a gallery and this was a creative challenge — you want to connect the community with the work,” Bernard said.
Many of the subjects had never sat for formal photographic portraits, but posing with their dogs was pleasant for both them and Bernard. Bernard, a professional photographer who has also worked at the Albuquerque Journal, often photographs dogs, cats and other animals available for adoption at the shelter.
The man/Chihuahua combination is nearly irresistible, she said.
“I like dogs. And I’ve always liked the contrast of a big man with a little dog — it’s kind of a chick magnet,” she said.
Bernard started the portrait project in December, using the clinic as a studio. Lights and backdrops went up around office hours.
Framed and professionally matted, the large portraits are displayed permanently in public areas of both the main building, where animals waiting for adoption are available, and the clinic building across the yard. There’s even one in an examination room.
The artwork is intended to help humans feel a bit better in a place that
is sometimes gloomy with abandoned or injured animals and where some animals are euthanized because they are suffering due to severe illness or injury.
The shelter’s assertive spay and neuter program for pets, strays and feral cats, which has been free for the pets of Española residents for the past several years, has produced substantial drops in the unwanted animal population, another reason to make the shelter more central to the community, said the shelter’s executive director, Bridget Lindquist.
The free spay or neuter program has been extended to outside the city limits and now also includes Taos County, Lindquist said. Shots are substantially discounted to encourage pet owners to care for their animals, she said.
Ten years ago the shelter’s intake of unwanted animals was 4,800 in a year; this past year it was 2,700 animals.
With so many area residents coming in to the shelter for their pets’ needs, the shelter is looking for some different ways to acknowledge its community, Lindquist said.
Still, artwork featuring members of the community, and holding a reception on Father’s Day for the portraits’ first viewing was a leap of faith, Lindquist said.
“One of the strong family traditions in the community is Father’s Day, so when so many people showed up on that day, that really was wonderful,” Lindquist said.
One dad who brought his family, and his dogs, to the reception to see his portrait was Brandon Lavers, 42. After seeing an advertisement for subjects for the project at his local Allsup’s last year, Lavers decided to sign up, along with his two, Chihuahua-style dogs, Cody and Mamacita.
He’s pleased with the result. “She (Bernard) made me look less like a nightmarish troll. And the dogs loved the treats, the toys and how calm she was,” said Lavers, a house inspector who moved to the Española area a few years ago.
The dogs are relatively new additions to his household, brought home separately by a well-meaning daughter. He wasn’t immediately enthused, but first Cody, and then Mamacita, won him over pretty quickly, he said.
“I’m a cat guy! But they aren’t yapping, quivering little messes. They don’t bark hardly at all,” he said.