Dog! Dog! Dogs!!! xo

I realized I hadn't had a full on DOG! session on Talula's Terradoodles!

Years ago I wanted to move to Park City and become a dog portrait artist. Even before having my own dogs (CJ, Chester and Moxie)... I knew in my heart that it was something I wanted to do. To be able to connect with an animal and tell their story thru their eyes (insert Sarah McLaughlin song here) would be such a joy in my life!!!  

Fast forward to North Carolina, about 10 years later, and imagine a springtime, afternoon lawn party... My friend Laura had just purchased a river raft and she was so excited she sat in the frame of it, on a cooler (Filled with Natty Lights or PBR's???), in the grass.

Laura was in the throws of opening The Sleepy Dog, and extension of the already successful Soapy Dog in the River Arts District of Asheville. Laura was talking about how she was going to use the raft to take the dogs down the river....

This perked my inner artist. The visual, the memory of my Park City dream...and the need to find a niche here in Asheville.

The Soapy and Sleepy Dog present: The Artful Dog! A progressive idea that ties in an already successful, staple business in the RAD, with a signature service to the clients and community.

Not to mention reasonably priced, really good, dog portraits.

In the past 5 months the above artworks are the first dogs of The Artful Dog. October 9th is the ribbon cutting ceremony; look for your invites via email. xo.

Much thanks to everyone who has made this possible. Being able to work as an artist is such a gift. I am so grateful!!!

Static: showing little or no change.

 

Original Sketches, NFS

If I don't put creativity into the universe each day I am incomplete.

If I allow distractions to enter my space, I have become quick to remove them per the act
of practicing.

I won't let love, disrupt, corrupt or interrupt me.

Ahhh...but I do love. I love greatly and passionately. I love big, huge and larger than life....
this love!!! This amazing love pulls me out of the darkness I so often fall into, this love gives me
a place to rest my head, comfort when I am weary, support when I am struggling.

This love is ART! I am so in love with it. Each line that goes on paper. The extension of my hand onto
subject. My eye tracing the outline of a tree until a bird trails in and pulls me into its swoop.

My God! I am so lucky to have this love. To think I often allow rage to consume me; so foolish.

The simplicity in which I choose to live is often clouded by static. I look down on the city that put me under
these past few months and I realize what I pulled out of it. What a wonderful body of work I have created here, gifted, shared and enjoyed.  Everyday no matter how bad the day is I often laugh to myself when I realize in the worst of it...I'm huddled over a sketch pad. Putting it down. Getting it out.

This next series is about these moments; umbrella titled "from concept to completion." The inspiration is coming from the way the birds swoop into the valley here and the "static" below. I have been gifted this amazing view. I am so grateful for the moments I have here I will not waste one of them. Not one. The city below represents static...as fast as everyone was moving; everything was standing still for me. I couldn't see the birds, the green, the movement of the clouds, I couldn't see me - in that space; but there I was - barely moving.

Today I ran the mountain as fast as I could just in hopes that I could get back to do my morning sketch. I am so excited about this practice. So in love with the consistency yet ever changing view; I hope you will enjoy the process with me. xo