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Art Imitating Our Bond With Dogs

About The Episode

When Pamela Hornik started to volunteer at the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University in 2010, she didn’t anticipate how much it would impact her life. She was exposed to a wider world of art styles and understanding what goes into buying.

Along with her husband, David, Pamela slowly started to collect some pieces of their own. They did not make any decisions by a guide of best practices or a specific medium, but rather how a given artwork made her feel. Primarily, it came from going to open studios in the Bay Area and finding work that resonated. They’ve gone on to collect paintings, photography, ceramics, textiles, and more.

While this process was underway, Pamela also found her furry soulmate in 2012: Teddy, a Maltese Chihuahua mix. At this time, Pamela was going through a breast cancer scare and was recovering from a biopsy when Teddy came into their life, so they immediately bonded as a result. And since he was so small, he later was able to travel with them around all the time. Pamela’s family had golden retrievers growing up, but her relationship with Teddy made her understand a different kid of connection you could have with a dog.

In 2020, after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown was underway, Pamela started a series of “Two Minutes with Teddy” videos on her Instagram, where she would be with Teddy by a piece of artwork as she shared some information about it. At this time, Pamela also stared to post some dog paintings by different artists and received positive feedback. She realized how dog art was a positive escape for people during a dark time. At the same time, through Instagram, she started to discover many beautiful individual pieces from artists that included a dog. This resulted in starting to buy more pieces, ultimately becoming a collection of its own.

For a long time, dog art had been seen as old-fashioned paintings of British royals and their dogs, or the cliche gimmicky paintings of dogs playing poker, for example. Pamela felt that there was much more interesting and sophisticated artwork being done by contemporary artists, who also have dogs that have played an important role in their life. These pieces, she feels, reflect that special human-dog bond.

After amassing a large-enough collection of these pieces, Pamela created a public exhibition called Some Dogs in San Francisco in 2023 to showcase a group of these dog works. People who attended were even allowed to bring their own dogs, and it became a community gathering place for her o connect with other rescue dog moms. After, The Green Family Art Foundation, a nonprofit for contemporary arts in Dallas, then brought the Some Dogs show to Texas in 2024 and hosted their own version.

Now, in addition to figuring out ideas for the show to travel elsewhere, Pamela is in the process of putting together a website for the dog works to be viewed digitally around the world. It will include information about where each work is being displayed and about the artists behind each piece.

About The Guest - Pamela Hornik

Pamela and Teddy
by Ania Hobson - aniahobson.com

Pamela Hornik is a Founding member of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF), Board member of Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, and a management committee member of Stanford’s Anderson Collection. Pamela and her husband, David Hornik, collect dog art and regularly support emerging artists in funding their exhibitions or publishing their books. An exhibit around pieces from their collection, Some Dogs, was installed in San Francisco in 2023. It then traveled to Dallas in 2024, put on by the Green Family Art Foundation. She has two dogs, a Maltese Chihuahua named Teddy and a toy Aussie named Auggie.

About The Host - Dr. Sharon Holland

Dr. Sharon Holland is a Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina (UNC). She teaches a popular class on animal studies, where Sharon challenges students to re-think the way we co-exist with other beings in the world through philosophical discussions. Her most recent book, an other: a black feminist consideration of animal life, explores this concept from a personal perspective as well. She is a lifelong equestrian, who has found strong connections with both horses and dogs. Sharon currently lives in North Carolina with her two rescues: Winnie, a senior lab mix, and Saol Sa'ed, a German Shepherd / Husky / Cattle puppy.