Tennant Creek, NT

Dogs, dogs and more dogs inspire young emerging Territory artist

A young Tennant Creek teenager is gaining national recognition through his unique art. Seventeen year old Dion Beasley’s work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Northern Territory and recently, his Cheeky Dog designs were selected for the conference bags and programs for the 1,000 delegates attending art at the heart, Regional Arts Australia’s sixth biennial conference in Alice Springs in October 2008.

Beasley’s work involves animals, in particular the town camp dogs. He has a form of muscular dystrophy and is deaf and unable to speak, so is helped with his daily arts practise by retired local school-teacher, Joie Boulter who originally met him six years ago while teaching at Tennant Creek Primary School.

“Dion is crazy about the local camp dogs,” says Joie. “And every dog he draws is a local dog that he actually knows. There’s a wide variety – angry dogs, fighting dogs, long skinny friendly dogs and hairy ones. One thing Dion enjoys is looking at all the local dogs as we drive around town. Sometimes he includes drawings of wild donkeys which provide plenty of action with the local dogs,” she says.

The Nomad Art Gallery in Darwin sells Beasley’s prints which have been exhibited in Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. Several of his drawings were included in an exhibition in 2008 in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. With the help of Boulter, his designs have been used to create a range of bags, t-shirts and stationery marketed under the label Cheeky Dogs.

“Cheeky Dog is taking off like a rocket. We started in 2004 with 20 printed t-shirts, sold them and then printed 100. We are now selling thousands of articles throughout the year. The royalties go into a trust fund for Dion’s future,” Boulter says. Beasley was joint winner of the 2005 Indigenous Momento Awards and a finalist in the Northern Territory Young Achiever Awards for 2006.