A shelter in North Carolina was trying to get him adopted.
“He had an absolutely horrible life, and yet he seemed happy, and I was told he got along well with people,” said Gartner, founder of Happily Furever After Rescue in Bethel, in Connecticut, which hosts at-risk animals. to be placed in shelters because they are elderly or disabled. “His ear had to be surgically removed, but Van Gogh was resilient, even after everything he had been through.”
“I had to save him,” she added.
Gartner arranged for the non-profit organization Pilots N Paws to fly Van Gogh to Connecticut in June. She let it be known on Facebook, Petfinder and Rescue Me that she had a sweet one-eared dog that needed a home, but no one wanted the 7-year-old boxer pit bull mix.
“Not a single application came in,” she said, explaining that he was staying with various host families. ” I could not believe it. He was the cutest dog ever.
After helping rescue him for four months, she looked at Van Gogh with her unique ear and an idea arose of how she could make him more adoptable.
“I had seen TikTok videos of other dogs creating paintings, so why not Van Gogh?” said Gartner. “He certainly had the name and the ear for it.”
So she dropped little drops of shiny paint on a 8 inch by 10 inch canvas, sealed in plastic wrap and covered with a thin layer of peanut butter.
Van Gogh took on his assignment with the enthusiasm of a true peanut butter-loving artist.
He licked the paint in dramatic streaks, and five minutes later, when Gartner decided the painting was done (and Van Gogh had eaten enough peanut butter), she removed the canvas. It was perfect.
Gartner believed they were an honored representative of Vincent van Gogh, the legendary Post-Impressionist artist who created “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers,” as both artists became prolific.
“He has a quick and creative tongue,” Gartner said. “It takes us longer to prepare the canvas for him than it takes Van Gogh to lick the peanut butter and smear the paint around it.”
One of the dog’s canvases was dabbed with blue and yellow paint to recreate Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’.
“We did the art for a week and then I invited people to come and see it at an outdoor art gallery event,” she said. “I had sparkling cider and pastries and even set up little booths for paintings.”
She was disappointed when only two people showed up for the Oct. 23 event. One was Jennifer Balbes of Monroe, Connecticut, who follows Gartner on social media.
“He came over and sniffed my face and we were fast friends. He’s an incredibly sweet dog,” said Balbes, 56.
She came home with a $40 Van Gogh painting titled “Clouds.”
Gartner was crushed that Van Gogh’s first art exhibition was a failure, but decided not to give up. She came the next day.
“I posted a message on Facebook in which I felt bad, only two people showed up, and I said the rest of the art was still available,” she said.
Suddenly everyone wanted it.
“The paintings sold out in two minutes,” she said, raking in around $1,000 for her. animal rescue.
Van Gogh continued to complete painting after painting, and in mid-November Gartner hosted an online auction. A dozen paintings of the dog sold, raising an additional $2,000 for the rescue, which she launched in 2020. Almost everyone paid more than the asking price for each painting, she said.
More importantly, Gartner said, Van Gogh was adopted on the final day of the auction by one of her adoptive volunteers.
Gartner marveled at how it captured hearts online with its whimsical illustrations.
She said she was surprised by the sudden interest in Van Gogh’s works after his failed gallery show.
“Never in a million years would I have thought I would see a dog become popular for their paintings,” she said. “It really changed my life and hers.”
She said the paintings have brought a lot of visibility to her small rescue, which has about 20 volunteers.
“Thanks to the attention given to Van Gogh’s story, we now have other dogs who have found homes,” she said.
The person who adopted Van Gogh is one of his adoptive volunteers, Jessica Starowitz. The adoption was made official on the final day of the auction, Nov. 21, Gartner said.
Starowitz had taken over monitoring Van Gogh from another foster home and decided she couldn’t let him go, she said.
“As soon as I saw him, I knew he would be an adoptive failure,” she said. “He was having fun and licking everyone and playing tug of war. My whole family fell in love with him.
Starowitz said she plans to provide Van Gogh with paint and peanut butter in case Gartner wants to hold other fundraisers for her nonprofit. She also launched an Instagram page for her talented new family member.
“Everyone loves Van Gogh, and he loves people,” she said. “Every time he sees a Ziploc bag and a jar of peanut butter, he knows it’s time to paint. But right now he’s sleeping on a big pillow-top bed in my office.
