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CNN SATURDAY
Interview With Ron Burns
Aired August 31, 2002 - 12:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: On September 11 last year, humans were not the only ones victimized at the World Trade Center. The bomb detection dog, Sirius, lost his life that day, too. Helping to pay tribute to the bravery of our four-legged friends, Ron Burns; he is the unique artist using vibrant colors to help honor Sirius, in that painting and poster that you just saw, and helping to pave the way to help train more rescue dogs. Ron is with us from San Francisco.
Good to see you, Ron.
RON BURNS, ARTIST: Hi, Fredricka. How are you? Thanks for having me on.
WHITFIELD: Well, I'm glad you could join us.
There's so many different ways that people are paying tribute to those lost during the World Trade Center. You decided to take a very unique approach to make sure people know about the brave efforts of the rescue dogs involved.
That poster which started out as a vibrant painting is one of Sirius and his Port Authority handler, Dave Lim. Why did you find it was so important to pay tribute to the rescue dogs, such as Sirius?
BURNS: Well, I -- being an artist and painting and I do commissions of people's pets, I was watching TV and saw the tragedy unfold during those days. And when we saw the story of Sirius, we just realized -- my wife and I -- that Dave was probably going through a lot of pain, a lot of anguish, as we all were.
I know in losing a pet, which I've been through, I just thought that I'm able to do a painting and give Dave a reproduction of that, that he could have for the rest of his life to remember Sirius by would be a wonderful thing for him. And it was a nice enough thing that it unfolded us to doing the posters so that people around the country, and around the world, can now have a picture of Sirius, the print, for themselves, as well, to remember Sirius by -- a great hero.
WHITFIELD: This effort has now taken on a life of its own. Not only do you have posters and the original painting, which helped spawn the posters, but now even these sculptures of Shepherd dogs that soon people are going to start seeing in New York, DOGNY. Explain how this evolved into this effort, which is going to be very similar to the cows, that people -- the fiberglass cows that many people would see in New York City (sic) and visiting other cities. BURNS: Right. DOGNY is being put on by the AKC, American Kennel Club. What they have done is decided to get sculptures of fiberglass life-sized German Shepherd dogs and then, through sponsors, both individuals and corporations, they purchase those sculptures. And they have had artists like myself come in, paint those dogs up. And then, in December, after being on display for a number of months, we'll have Sotheby's come in, do an auction, sell all of the dogs. And all money raised will help more search and rescue dogs be trained and their handlers, as well, for traveling around the country, the different work that they do.
WHITFIELD: Your signature touch is the vibrant colors, the almost sometimes, fluorescent colors that you use to help tell the story of these dogs. We're looking at a print now of one of your paintings. What's interesting about these is, this really all started from not just your love of pets but helping dogs get adopted in shelters. Explain how you would go and go in search of some of these dogs and then turn it into a painting such as this.
BURNS: Sure, my wife and I, we've been giving back to the community for years. It all started when I was initially painting my dogs. I painted my cats and dogs, and my wife, said to me, you know, we can't be really selling the pictures of our kids to everybody.
So, while vacationing, I thought, I'm going to run down to the local shelter, take some photographs for some subject matter. I did that, did a series of paintings, sold all of them at an art show. We wrote a check back to that shelter saying thank you for allowing me to come in and photograph those pets. Since that time, it's been nice. We've created programs. I'm the artist in residence for the Humane Society of the United States, which is a nice honor. We do everything we can for shelter animals to help them find homes through the artwork that I do.
WHITFIELD: And these are such great pictures.
BURNS: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: And so, not only have you seen that this has helped inspire the adoption of so many pets but now you're branching out where you believe the money raised from the sculptures that are going to be around New York will also help to train more of these dogs. Perhaps some of these dogs that is from puppy pounds, right?
BURNS: Oh, yes.
WHITFIELD: Which can end up being turned into rescue dogs.
BURNS: Yes, exactly. And search and rescue dogs, I have also found out in the last year, all of -- there are a lot of pet therapy dogs, that went to ground zero time and time again. And in traveling around the country, this last year, I have been able to photograph the pet therapy dogs and do paintings of those, as well. So, basically, I'm branching out as far as subject matter from dogs that are shelter dogs into search and rescue dogs, therapy dogs and even assistance dogs, who help people. There are a lot of dogs -- in the last year I realized -- that give their lives on a daily basis towards all of us humans, and it goes unrecognized. And through my art I'm able to portray them, hopefully, and let people know about the great works they do.
WHITFIELD: There are millions of dogs that are unadopted out there. How in the world do you narrow it down to a few to take their picture and decide you're going to be the subject of my artwork? What do you look for?
BURNS: It's like anything, I think the artist that sees the sun cascading across the rock and wants to capture that. I'll go into a shelter and I'll see a dog and think that does for me the same emotional thing that maybe a sunset does for another artist. I'll photograph that dog, and then go back to my studio and work from those photographs to hopefully capture that dog and show it in all of the honor that I think it respects.
WHITFIELD: And you look at these pictures, and some of them just make you laugh, because they're so cute. But this is a serious business. This has become a very serious business for you. These are -- some of your paintings have now garnered upwards of $10,000, even $15,000, and a good portion of your proceeds are going to helping these four-legged friends.
BURNS: Yeah. I think it's just -- for us, my wife and myself, our dog, we have one left. We lost three last year, it was a hard year. You just realize the whole cycle is about doing what you love to do in life and then giving back. And in doing that, we can really feel that what you do is not great in your life just for being able to do what you do, but by giving back and helping these other shelter animals find homes. You just know you're giving to them. And it's kind of a complete cycle, a complete circle of good all the way around.
WHITFIELD: All right. Ron Burns, for those of us that can't afford to buy your works of art, when can we start to see the fiberglass Shepherds in New York?
BURNS: They'll be in New York starting next week, I believe, through December. So you can visit them there.
WHITFIELD: All right. Ron Burns, thanks very much for joining us. We're enjoying looking at your work.
BURNS: Thanks, I appreciate it.
WHITFIELD: Thanks for sharing.
BURNS: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right.
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