My Dog Sighs
My Dog Sighs is a street artist based in Portsmouth, UK. He has participated in the Free Art Movement by leaving free art in public to be found by strangers as part of what he calls "Free Art Fridays". His street art has appeared around cities in the UK and internationally, and often features reflections in a realistic human eye, faces painted on discarded tin cans and his series of cartoon like characters including "Quiet Little Voices". While incorporating found materials, his work includes melancholic, and naive He now travels internationally to create murals around the world.
In 2023, My Dog Signs celebrated the 20th anniversary of his art career by a citywide treasure hunt in Portsmouth with pieces of his artwork totaling £45,000 in value to be found.
Free Art Fridays
Although artistic since school, My Dog Sighs pursued a teaching career as a stable job. In the early 2000s, My Dog Sighs was inspired by the emerging street art scene, including Banksy, to attempt his own work. He began by creating small pieces of art that he would leave in public, sometimes on his commute to his primary school teaching job, to be found by strangers. Clues to the location of artworks are sometimes left on social media to combine treasure hunting with art. My Dog Sighs said he weekly participated in Free Art Fridays for 12 years. The gifted art movement was reinvigorated by My Dog Sighs coining the term "Free Art Fridays".My Dog Sighs says street art has a special power to engage a wide audience: "The power of art is that it just makes people look at the world in a slightly different way... As a street artist, what I find really powerful is the idea that it’s not just people looking for art that are seeing it. Every demographic walks down the street and can stumble across a piece of street art."
Free Art Friday was featured on the BBC's The Culture Show in Feb 2012. This led to galleries selling his work and finding it was commercially successful.