May Artist of the Month

              Art At The Kent Library

Sponsored by The Friends of Kent Library

with Arts on the Lake

Exhibit: Riley the Dog

Show Dates: May 1st-31st

 

Jeff Hodges

  Jeff Hodges is a videographer based in Manhattan who has been filming documentaries, fashion shows, and the performing arts for almost 50 years. He has produced many films about nature and local history that can be found in libraries and historical societies throughout Putnam County and elsewhere.

Here is what he has to say about the subject of his current exhibit "Riley the Dog":

Riley the dog came to us from Santa Monica California. She was five years old, and such a hellion that her previous owner sometimes gave her bits of Valium to make her more tractable.

Like other Yorkies that entered our lives throughout the years, she arrived "over my dead body" but nonetheless took up residence in our city/country lifestyle. She quickly adapted to the turmoil of Manhattan, strutting down the sidewalk like a hoodlum, barking at police cars and ambulances, straining at the end of her leash to challenge any dog that came along. Friendly dog owners would attempt a canine introduction, saying "my dog is a real sweetheart, she loves little dogs" while Riley launched herself into the air in a frenzy of snarling and biting. We had no friends among the large fraternity of urban dog owners.

The first time I brought her to the country I took her into the woods and turned her loose. She tore up a rocky ridge barking and sniffing, terrorizing squirrels and chipmunks, and digging into the earth until she all but disappeared. This is what she'd been waiting for her whole life. When she came back down she was my dog and never left my side for the next nine years. When she died, she left behind a long list of creatures that she treed, took to ground, and otherwise challenged and intimidated, including a fisher, a litter of bobcats, countless deer, and a couple of coyotes.

Not bad for a dog that weighed six pounds soaking wet after a full meal.

There are fourteen 10"x12" photos in the exhibit $100 Per Photo

One 11"x14" photo $125