While perusing Dog Milk, one of my favorite dog-meets-design sites ever, I recently came across the work of Anja Zaharanski, a Germany-based artist and designer who has given herself a fairly ambitious project: creating a striking piece of dog art for every day of the year.
Dog behavior “is really interesting to me and I’m hoping to learn more about [it] in the future,” Zaharanski told Four magazine in a July interview. She started sketching family and neighborhood dogs, but then opened her project to submissions and received so many e-mails from dog lovers that she had to stop accepting requests. (Personally, I’m bummed I only learned of the project now — I’d love to see my own pup, Mr. Moxie, illustrated in Zaharanski’s unique style.)
Here are some dogs who did make it into the project:
Pictured above: Whippets Sneaks and Billy. Sneaks “is a cheeky thief, very naughty and quirky.” Billy “is shy with strangers but [is] an absolute cuddle-monster with people and dogs he knows well.”
Above: Schnauzer mix Colega, whose mom describes him as “kind and patient and fun. He makes me laugh a few times each day.”
Above: Jack Russell Terrier Flecki.
Above: Lucy, a German Shepherd, and Pai, and Australian Kelpie. Lucy is one of the artist’s “favorite dogs in this world.”
Above: Frankie, a Whippet “who adores his people but is shy of strangers.”
Follow the artist and her work at her website, Dogs Can Bark.
