Portrait of the Dog As a Young Artist

Book excerpt: The artist's primary process is a dynamic color transfer technique. In preparation for each of Tillie's works, her assistant assembles a touch-sensitive recording device by affixing pigment-coated vellum to a pre-cut piece of paper backed by mat board. The artist takes the prepared canvas in her mouth and brings it to her workspace. Working on the outside surface, she applies pressure with teeth and claws in a methodic ritual marked by dramatic shifts in tempo and intensity. The resultant sharp and sweeping intersecting lines are complemented by the artist's delicate paw prints and subtle tongue impressions, composing an expressionistic image that is revealed on the paper beneath when she is finished. She works with shocking intensity, sometimes to the point of destroying her creations. Her intense, instinctive scratch marks - mostly in red, blue, yellow and black - have drawn comparisons to abstract artists Jackson Pollock and Cy Twombly.