dog park adventures (& art)

Another morning spent at the dog park. There were two dogs there I'd never before seen in person, only on Animal Planet - Thai Ridgebacks. Gorgeous dogs, very short coat, wide backward ridge running up their backs. The girl had a black one named Diesel and a blue named Isis. Maggie took off at a dead run, but Diesel ran her down in no time and took the lead. They flew around the park for several minutes at top speed, then slowed a bit and galloped around some more before finally stopping to do the sniff thing.

There was also an abandoned Chihuahua that someone had apparently tossed over the fence. He looked healthy enough but wasn't very friendly. The Thai Ridgeback girl had already called animal control to come get him and once the truck showed up, she left. The dog catcher lady (DCL) came in and tried to make friends with the Chi but didn't have much luck. I thought she was nuts trying to pick up an unfriendly stray dog, but she didn't seem too worried about it. She trailed around after him for a while, trying to lasso him with a leash, but he dashed out of reach each time she made a toss.

Then we tried to lure him into the safety gate area, so she could grab him, but he was wise to that old trick and just stood there looking at all of us crammed into the 3x6 area like we were crazy. The DCL didn't want to get her net cause she said it made her feel like the prototypical bad guy dog catcher, so she finally sat on a bench and sweet talked him into coming up to her. This all unfolded over the course of an hour or so. I had taken these supplies - my misc journal made with an old book as a cover, some charcoal pencils, my Inktense pencils, and a water brush.

While she worked on the dog, I sat on a bench and worked on this.
It is a direct result of having watched this Julie Fei-Fan Balzer video, which was posted by Lenna earlier today. (oy, the linkage...)

I'm not thrilled with my drawing and painting skills, but when I saw this vid, I thought 'I can maybe do that,' so I grabbed my stuff and headed for the dog park, bound and determined to make art!

And I did. These don't really look much like hydrangeas, I suppose, but I've had hydrangeas on my mind lately as they're in bloom around here right now, AND I'm in the process of choosing plants for a new back yard bed.

They actually look more like grapes, huh?

hydrangea spread (6 x 9") in duct tape journal
pages are from an old book on horse racing (left) and one about
investigative techniques for the private investigator.
I masking taped the center seam, then used clear Gesso to
prep the pages. I really like how the text shows thru a bit.

Ah, well... I like the colors, and I like the charcoal accents, so it's all good. I'm really not one of those people who beat themselves up too much about things not being good enough. I wish I could draw better, but I'm philosophical bout the fact that I just don't have a ton of skill in that dept. Maybe I'll improve with time and maybe I won't.

Altho it would be nice if my faces didn't all look like rejects from the art department of the next Alien movie...

The DCL eventually lured the Chi close enough to slip the leash over his head. She scooped him up under her arm and headed off to the truck. I finished my banana bread, glugged down the rest of my water, then Mags and I went home.

The End.