Tillamook Cheddar is a Jack Russell terrier

Jack Russell Terrier

The Jack Russell terrier is a small terrier that has its origins in fox hunting. It is principally white-bodied smooth, rough or broken-coated which is commonly confused with the Parson Russell terrier and the Russell terrier with the term "Jack Russell" commonly misapplied to other small white...

 dog from Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich, Connecticut

Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...

. She had work on display at the National Arts Club

National Arts Club

The National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...

, collaborating on pieces that were shown with human artists such as Tom Sachs

Tom Sachs

Tom Sachs may refer to:*Tom Sachs *Tom Sachs , movie producer, credits include The Lady Vanishes and The Horror of Frankenstein...

 and Dirk Westphal

Dirk Westphal

Dirk Reinhard Westphal is an American artist living in New York City.Since completing his MFA at California Institute of the Arts in 1989 he has been working in several different artistic processes, but with an emphasis in photography. Initially working commercially as a freelance photographer for...

.

Background

A 16-pound (7.25 kg) Jack Russell terrier with a white coat and brown and black markings on her face, she is named for Tillamook Cheddar, a brand of cheese produced in the U.S. state of Oregon. She lives in the Clinton Hill

Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

Clinton Hill is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is bordered on the east by Bedford-Stuyvesant, on the west by Fort Greene, on the north by Wallabout Bay and on the south by Prospect Heights...

 neighborhood of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York, with her owner, F. Bowman Hastie III, a freelance

Freelancer

A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...

 writer and editor. Hastie, who grew up in Oregon, serves as her agent, publicist, and manager.

Hastie received Tillamook Cheddar as a 30th birthday gift from his mother, picking her out of a litter in Greenwich, Connecticut. Hastie first noted her presumed artistic inclinations when she was six months of age; while he was sitting on his couch writing on a legal pad, she jumped up and began scratching at the pad. Believing that she was attempting to communicate in some way, he affixed a sheet of carbon paper to the pad and she scratched her first image.

Reception of work

In 2004 Parade Magazine

Parade (magazine)

Parade is an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 500 newspapers in the United States. It was founded in 1941 and is owned by Advance Publications. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., Parade has a circulation of 32.2 million and a readership of nearly 70...

described her as "Best New Artist" and in 2005 The Art Newspaper

The Art Newspaper

The Art Newspaper is a monthly newspaper about the visual arts based in London.It is published in a newspaper, rather than a magazine, format...

said she was "the most successful living animal painter".

Art critic

Art critic

An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...

 Michael Mills of the New Times Broward-Palm Beach

New Times Broward-Palm Beach

New Times Broward-Palm Beach is an alternative weekly newspaper; it is part of the Village Voice Media chain. The paper split off from the Miami New Times in 1997, under the auspices of then editor-in-chief Tom Walsh. Walsh was succeeded by Chuck Strouse, who was replaced in 2005 with Tony Ortega...

 said:
Mills also quoted Jerry Saltz

Jerry Saltz

Jerry Saltz is an American art critic. Since 2006, he has been senior art critic and a columnist for New York magazine. Formerly the senior art critic for The Village Voice, Saltz has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism three times. He was the sole advisor for the 1995 Whitney...

 of The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

who called the work a "sham".

Exhibitions

In 2007, she painted in a public multimedia event called "Tillie Jazz," in collaboration with a live jazz trio (pianist Dred Scott, tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry, and drummer RJ Miller).

Media appearances

Tillamook Cheddar has appeared on CNN Sunday Morning

CNN Sunday Morning

CNN Sunday Morning is a news program on CNN in the United States hosted by T. J. Holmes. The program is produced in Atlanta and takes a look ahead at the day's top news stories and events. It airs from 6:00 to 7:30am and 8:00am to 9:00am ET....

, with hosts Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper

Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...

 and Catherine Callaway

Catherine Callaway

Catherine Callaway is currently a "fill-in" news anchor for Headline News. She has also previously worked as an anchor for CNN.Catherine's background includes work at WJSU-TV in Anniston, Alabama, WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Alabama and WBMG-TV in Birmingham, Alabama before joining CNN.Catherine...

 (September 29, 2002).

On December 1, 2006, Sean Cole of NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

's Studio 360

Studio 360

Studio 360 is an American weekly public radio program about media, the arts and culture hosted by novelist Kurt Andersen and produced by PRI Public Radio International and WNYC in New York City. The program's stated goal is to "Get inside the creative mind" and uses arts and culture as a lens to...

program mentioned her as an animal artist.

Books

• F. Bowman Hastie III (2006). Portrait of the Dog as a Young Artist: Art from Scratch, By the World's Preeminent Canine Painter. Seattle, Washington: Sasquatch Books. ISBN 978-1570614644
• Packard, Mary (2003). Talented Animals: A Chapter Book. Children's Press. ISBN 0516229117

Articles

• Szabo, Julia. "Picture this! Tillie's Artistic Talent Brings Her Star-Status." New York Post
  New York Post
  The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
  
  , September 26, 2004.
• Ballo, Kate. "These Paintings Fetch Up to $2000 (And They were Painted By a Dog)." New York Dog
  New York Dog
  New York Dog was an unsuccessful lifestyle magazine for animal lovers based upon women's fashion and lifestyle magazines but instead featuring dogs. It was owned by the publishing empire of John Ryan, now known for his 2009 RTÉ Two comedy television show This is Nightlive, which mimics the antics...
  
  , January 2006.