Because we’re always interested in original animal art we wanted to share what we found in the current issue of Bark Magazine. Scott Fife, is a well-known sculptor in the Pacific Northwest, famous for larger than life busts of famous figures. Well Scott has now added a gi-nourmous sculpture of his own dear dog, LeRoy a big gangly Coon Hound puppy! (by “gi-nourmous” i mean almost 10 feet tall!)
In his interview with the Bark, Scott said, “First of all, having a show at the Tacoma Art Museum gave me an opportunity to do a really large piece, And during the time I was preparing for the show, my wife and I got LeRoy and another Coon Hound from a rescue group. Of course puppies are charming and fun, playful, and take up lots of your time as well. I had him in my studio and did drawings of him. I pretty much thought I would try to do this piece of him as a puppy, a really oversized piece that would reference his vision of himself – bigger than the center of the world.”
The sculpture weighs about 500 pounds and is constructed as one solid piece. Wait… did I mention that Scott Fife’s medium of choice is cardboard?! Specifically, archival cardboard, held together with glue and screws. LeRoy was by far his biggest undertaking however, “the scale was new to me, but I was really physically engaged in it – I would press my whole body against a sheet of cardboard so I could screw it down. Even though the busts that I’d done previously are bigger than life-size, I could hold the pieces I used to shape them with my hand or a clamp. But this required me to use my whole body as a weight, which struck me as quite appropriate.”
When asked how he got started working with cardboard, Scott explained, “Part of it was the inexpensiveness of the material. I mean, I would just go out and find boxes in alleyways. But I began to realize that the high acid content meant that the lifespan of the piece could be limited – cardboard is intended to be disposable, after all. Then I discovered archival cardboard, which I found I liked working with. I liked using paper, so I didn’t think it would be that great of a leap. At first glance, the viewer has no idea what the material is; then the corrugation is recognized and it’s commonplace again. I also like the color. It has a coolness to it. It’s not intended to be dark and macabre, but I suppose there’s that element in it as well, a coolness going to coldness. But it has a really classic sort of nature about it, I think.” 
Right now you can see an exhibition of Scott Fife’s work at Chicago’s Bodybuilder & Sportsman Gallery, and he is represented by Platform Gallery in Seattle.
