- Courtesy Of Frog Hollow
- Dogs by Norton Latourelle
Didn’t get a puppy for Christmas? It’s not too late. Especially if you prefer one that definitely won’t pee on the carpet. All kinds of canines await their new best friends at Frog Hollow Vermont Craft Gallery in Burlington, and they’re as low-maintenance as they are cute. These “Rescue Dogs” are constructed of wood and painted to resemble Labs, beagles, terriers, hounds and doodles. Their creator hopes every one of them will go to a good home.
Norton Latourelle has been constructing critters for half a century. His first interest was avian, particularly habitués of the eastern shore and migrating songbirds. But after he and his wife, Marlene, bought an old farm in Shoreham in 1991, Latourelle’s menagerie — and his skill with cutting tools — steadily grew.
Now the animal kingdom is well represented at Norton’s Gallery — actually a pair of galleries in unheated barns on the property. Along with dogs, there are cardinals and cows and camels. There are seven-foot giraffes and enormous rabbits. There are dinosaurs and elephants.
Visitors to the Shoreham gallery have included many repeat collectors, as well as customers wanting Latourelle to immortalize their own pets in wood. Over the years, outlets around Vermont and well beyond — including a gallery in Germany — have sold his work.
Dogs, especially puppies, have long been the artist’s bestsellers. Latourelle attributes that to the special bond humans have with their pooches. (Yes, feline fans, he makes cats, too.)
Does he have any favorite pieces of his own? “I do,” he said with a chuckle. “What I tell people is, it’s often the last piece I finished.”
Another favorite is surprisingly abstract: the orb. Latourelle has been making the sculptures — from recycled silo staves — all his life. “I just love them,” he said. “I’m fascinated by that shape; it’s kind of spiritual, meditative.”
Latourelle’s artistry has earned him a living for decades, but at nearly 75, he’s ready to retire. In a video on his website, he describes the work as physically demanding, citing a back injury and arthritis. “I’d still like to carve, to create,” he said, “but more on my terms.”
Latourelle is keen to create “for the heck of it.” He’s also eager to find adoptive parents for his accumulated creatures, as if he’s been their foster dad all along. This isn’t just a marketing motif for Frog Hollow; Latourelle maintains a “Rescue a Dog” page on his website, as well. Its offerings “include the first of a series, overstock of familiar breeds, and ones that simply seemed to appear through inspiration,” the page explains. “They are living here in our ‘Shelter,’ anxiously awaiting their forever home.”
For Latourelle, a legacy is not just the making but the passing along of his art. “It’s not really finished until someone owns it,” he said.