The Dogs* Gallery is the love-child of Ron and Jean Finley, whose long career in advertising often depended on directing and photographing dogs. "We used dogs to sell everything from Barbies to Big Macs," says Finley who maintains his photo studio behind the gallery, "and now, on the dogs' behalf, we're getting even." The "getting even" doesn't stop at the gallery business. The Finleys, and all of the featured artists will donate substantially in the gallery's name to local animal rescue groups, and started with a silent auction of six works the opening week, that raised over $3000.

Mylette Welch, from Healdsburg, California, whose humorous and nostalgic paintings are rooted in the Sonoma County landscape. Her work is a controlled riot of color and texture that infuse ordinary places and things with energy and vitality, usually in the service of the pooch du jour. Hers is a world of rusty trucks and vineyards, old gas stations and flower gardens, but most of all she loves painting dogs. "People tell me that my paintings are humorous but poignant glimpses into who dogs are," says Mylette, "and most people say my paintings bring them joy."

Anne Leuck Feldhaus of Chicago, who's bold, colorful paintings are a mix of contemporary folk and urban pop art with a touch of the surreal. Her settings range from whimsical cityscapes to rural settings populated by dogs: sitting, rolling, and soaring in the sky. "We are inspired by the visual world that surrounds us, and by what speaks to our hearts. Dogs speak with their eyes and their tails and their crazy antics." Anne's media ranges from stretched canvas to furniture.

DeDe LaRue of Denver is a sculptress of extraordinary craft and vision. Her life-like realism is at once touching and savage, joyful and despairing, humorous and ironic. The universal appeal of her work arises from the hope and goodness we all see in our pooches, cast into a crazy world of man's making, to wit: a homeless Chihuahua pushing his meager belongings in a shopping cart. Her work is truly unique.

Jennifer O'Cualain of Phoenix produces drawings, watercolors, and paintings of animals with a master' skill, to be sure, but beyond her dazzling technique is her uncanny ability to portray the soul of the animal with a haunting clarity. Her work is a seductive dance that draws you past it's slick exterior to glimpses of inner beauty and beyond where usually there lurks a place that can be a little eerie.

Wendy McKim Murphy of Vancouver creates highly original and energetic "hybrid" sculptures of papier-mache, sometimes fully three dimensional, and sometimes compressed into a painting frame, like an animal trying to escape from a 2-dimensional canvas. Ms. Murphy draws for her art on from her youth in the fjord-like North Shore above Vancouver. "In those days dogs, cats children and the odd white duck freely roamed the streets and beaches." says Ms. Murphy. "People and animals were personalities of equal importance in our world. In mine, they still are."

Ron Finley of Los Angeles combines his skills in photography, special effects, and illustration to create whimsical and lively worlds where dogs cope with improbable, irony-laden situations. His background as an animator, writer-director of television shows, and commercial photographer shows through in his constant effort to "tell a story". His sense of fun and his impeccable standards lead to an excellent finished product – always perfect and often magical.