Artist Ali Golzad created the awesome dog portrait pictured above out of reclaimed corrugated cardboard, but his depth as an artist goes much deeper.
I didn’t understand folks who had portraits done of their dogs until my husband and I adopted our sweet rescue a few years ago. Now I could totally see myself wanting a piece of wall art featuring our sweet girl Jenna. The cut up pieces of cardboard give the piece a beautiful texture, don’t they? You almost want to reach out and pet this sweet pup! The dog is named Lucy, and Golzad created the portrait for her owners.
Golzad is an avid craftivist, and his body of work extends far beyond dog portraits. His series Invisible People – also made using reclaimed cardboard – is meant to raise awareness about human trafficking. This excerpt from his artist’s statement about the series is so powerful:
I have a strong affinity for these traumatized and abused children because when I was ten years old, I was forced to flee my native Iran due to revolution there and live as an orphan in Sweden until I was reunited with my parents three years later. To me the plight of child soldiers and children abused as sex slaves escapes notice in the civilized word which causes me to question how civilized we really are. To me, these are invisible people.