Dogtown Artworks

11/19/2025

Head to Vintage Vinyl at the Vault on Friday, Nov. 28, for Record Store Day. Get 20 percent off all records, including rare and collectible albums. The shop is located inside the Vault Art Gallery, 100 N. Main St., downtown Tuscola. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm.

02/20/2025

It's always flattering and humbling when someone thinks your artwork is interesting and unique.

Cynthia and I were contacted last year by editor Carisa Ownby at the Illinois Partners magazine to see if we would be interested in having a story about us appear in the magazine, which is produced for the Illinois Farm Bureau.

Photographer Nathan Lambrecht came to Tuscola last summer to take photos and writer Celeste Huttes stopped by in the fall for the interview. We'd like to send out a big thank you to everyone involved.

The story on us appears in the current issue (Spring 2025) of Illinois Partners and in case you would like to have a look at it here's the link:

Cindy and Kirby Pringle's passion for dogs and art shines through in their unique art at Dogtown Artworks in Tuscola.

10/24/2024

Some late-season butterflies. All were taken at Lake Shelbyville, Shelby County, over the past week. ID's with photos: little yellow sulphur, what I think is a Huron Sachem and a buckeye puddling on the lakeside beach with a defective right lower wing.

10/22/2024

An immature bald eagle, approximately 4 to 4-1/2 years old, cruises over Lake Shelbyville, near the dam area last week. This one should be ready to mate when the season starts in January in Illinois.

10/20/2024

A turkey vulture spreads its wings Saturday afternoon while perched on a fencepost near the dam at Lake Shelbyville.

Turkey vultures spread their wings like this for several reasons, the main one being to heat up their feathers to try to rid themselves of mites and parasites. They also do this to heat up in the morning or dry their feathers after bathing.

This one was near the beach and may have taking a bath earlier. A clean turkey vulture is a happy turkey vulture.

10/19/2024

Tonight was one of the last opportunities to see the comet with the weird name: Tsuchinshan–ATLAS or C2023-A3. We are staying at our camper at Lake Shelbyville, and went to the Margaret Guzy Pothole Prairie, a good dark spot, to take photos.

These are all taken with my iPhone on a tripod, with a 30-second exposure and in the Pro RAW format. Photos were edited in Lightroom. I took photos using the normal 1X (best for night skies) and the 2X and 3X to frame the comet as close as I could.

I could barely see the comet with the naked eye. It was basically a smudge in the sky. The light from full moon definitely did not help. I used the Star Walk app to locate the comet.

It will be another 80,000 years before this comet comes around, so see it while you can!

10/18/2024

A pair of white pelicans soar through the air at the Bruce West access area at Lake Shelbyville.

10/15/2024

Gonzo Joe plays with his stick at Lake Shelbyville on Monday afternoon.

10/15/2024

The Moon. Taken last week, Canon EOS R7, at 1/200 and F11 with an 800mm lens handheld.

10/15/2024

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day from Kicking Bear, an important Lakota Sioux chief who was born in 1845 and died in 1904.

Kicking Bear and his first cousin, Crazy Horse, were among the leaders of the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes that defeated George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Calvary in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

Kicking Bear was later involved in the Ghost Dance movement of the 1890s and living on the Standing Rock Reservation when Sitting Bull was murdered because of his involvement in the dance.

Kicking Bear, perceived as a threat to the federal government, was arrested, along with other Sioux leaders, and taken to Fort Sheridan, just north of Chicago, where he was imprisoned for nearly a year.

"Who would have thought that dancing could make such trouble?" Kicking Bear said.

I restored the photograph several years ago, but just finished hand-coloring it. The photo was taken in 1898 by Herman Heyn when Kicking Bear was attending the Indian Congress at Omaha, Neb.