jewel chihuahua: meet artist ilona sampovaara

Copyright ©2008 by Ilona Sampovaara

Isn't this a charming piece? Wait till you hear the best part - it's a ring. Artist Ilona Sampovaara creates these "art jewels" and they're available for you at her Etsy shop, Ilona Art.

I was looking for something totally different and unrelated - oh, a western pioneer outfit, if you must know, but it's a long story - when I caught site of the image above. Though it reminded me of my favorite boy Diego, the set of the dog's lips and the quirk of its eyes had something more knowing, even Old World about them. This was the sort of dog I might see lolling to the side of a Velasquez canvas. I couldn't help but investigate. . .

Copyright ©2008 by Ilona Sampovaara

Ilona titled this "The Xolo King," and while it's of course a fanciful take on a Renaissance portrait, Ilona has made a perfect worldly, wily gentleman from this Xoloescuicle hound. You should read what she says about him here. If you wonder, as I immediately began to do, about her ability to mash up cultures and histories with assurance, you can betake yourself over to her main Ilona Art website. Her bio there mentions that she was born in Finland, but lived a great many places, a way of life that the Finns call a "suitcase child." Now she lives in Mexico, and says:

My home is where ever my art takes me. The greatest journey of them all...I am fascinated by Pop Surrealism and Pop Culture, anything that falls into the Steampunk category. I get inspired by the new in the old, the beautiful in the ugly, if that makes any sense.

And it does. Do visit her site and her Etsy shop. They are full of sophisticated and playful retakes of images you know. You'll have fun.