What breed?

 

The question asked most among dog owners and the generally curious is: "What breed is that?" We have had Portuguese water dogs for about 25 years now, and we did not even know what the breed was when we adopted what was advertised as a "lab mix" in a small Dogs for Free ad, in the Baltimore Sun.

 So by accident we joined owners of a rare breed. Twenty five years ago there were less than 3,000 in the world. In the middle of the Portuguese Civil War in the 1970's their population dropped to a low of 27.  Today in America, Portugal, Australia, and Brazil they are a thriving breed no longer on the brink of extinction. If you watch Crofts show in England or any of the American major shows you will see them competing in the working dog group.

 

My story today is really not about rare pure bread dogs. My blog today started with a comment from our veterinarian on our last visit with two adopted mix breed pups.

We were having a general conversation about the treatment of animals and got on to the subject of horses at some point. His face dropped into a sad frown.

  

Fudge our Portuguese Water Dog Sire being pursued by our two latest mix breed adopted pups.

He told us that the market for horses had hit hard times and people who owned them were not giving them the care they required.  If the horse was a $200 buy it had very little chance of good care, but if the horse was a $2,000 buy or better it would probably get care.

The animals were being stratified by their economic status. Both horses could be ridden the same distance, would establish the same connection with a caring owner, yet because of their apparent dollar value they would have much different lives when it came to medical care.

We have had the same veterinarian for fourteen years now and we have the responsibility for 10 dogs.  There care and feeding rivals our mortgage payment. There has been changes in the membership of our pack over the years. New Portuguese Water Dogs and new Found Dogs have made up the mix of our ten.

 

Sebastian found us this past July. We think he is part Bernese Mountain Dog since he loves to lie and roll in the snow..

He needed an operation for some damage that had been done to his hip in a fight or accident before we added him to our group,

 

Dr. B. Paid us a compliment during the visit we just had with our two new mix-breed pups.

He observed over the years we had worked with him that we gave the same attention and care to all of our pack, pure bread or mix breed.  I had never given a moments thought before to treating a dog we had just spent a small fortune (to us) for, any different than Sebastian a mix breed who arrived in our neighbors yard, all bones and covered in burrs, lost and hungry.

 

When I think about his comment, it made me reflect about the 5 going on 6 year conflict on Health Care in the United States.  If you are pure bread with a nice thick wallet for a coat, the best of care is available to you. If you are a skinny stray who had had the misfortune of becoming lost in our economic survival of the fittest jungle, chance are you will have a short miserable life, and medical care will be a luxury you just will not be able to take advantage of.

 

We treat Americans our own citizens just like the horse owners have done. We care for the rich and the poor have a second class place at the medical dining room.

 

So as you read this, think---are you one of the well off with unlimited access to the best care or are you just able to access care on an emergency basis.  Will the next medical event in your life be with out more than the normal amount of worry or will it wipe out all you have worked for in your lifetime? 

 

Both situations are the American Way!

 

Pure Bred or Mix-Breed

 

Door to the Left or Door to the Right

Best of Care or Left to Chance

 

 

 

What is bound will break free.

We often do not know what binds us....

The moon cut loose of its moorings

Is the monster real?

Come a little closer now and see that I am really

there.

With thrashing arms it wills it self toward freedom.

Fabric shreds and I am free.

No Structure those Abstract Nuts- Its in the Details

My halting start into blogdom has had me working on projects long neglected. The room I wanted for a gallery and studio got taken over by other uses. Well I have captured some of the space back again.  The art collection has lingered in hiding and has expanded over the years; my work and the collection of mine and my wife's interests. So here is a venture into abstract structure.

 

Perhaps a meaningless mass of colors

 

 

A little closer and a world begins to spin and move forward.

 



Closer still and the world escapes the canvas edge.

 

 

 



Just stand back for a while.

 

 

Now is there some demon within trying to break out?

 

 

What sins have bound, what bands bind, what pain?

 

 

 

Is there any thought of healing, forgiveness, hope?

 

Or just one more wound, after wound?

 

 

"Now that's Structure"

Is it abstract enough?

Not by me. Billy was the son and brother of a family close to me.

This was an exercise he completed on his way to being an architect.

Quite a bit younger than me, he is gone several years now, but his buildings

are standing in Europe and Asia. He was always on the move.



Is it just a bad exposure?

 



Could they be in this painting?

 

 



Dressed for the ball but where is the carriage?

(three above from the same acrylic collage)

 

 

 

This corner is for another day.

 

The structure is just the sum of minute details

 

Good Night

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 17 to 67

Mature

Emerging out of my paintings that are all abstract in some form is myself. A side of me that is always there, spent years in the background just above the gesso on oils, and between the lines on drawings, and a ghost breaking out of the layer of acrylics when I painted in a frenzy of activity.

I guess this is no different than the experience of a thousand or a hundred thousand artists before me.
Each in his own way using light, color, depth, shadow, and stroke to understand and represent the world or a part of the world within and outside.

I wondered when I was younger why an artist could paint one scene after another in the same style, one seeming just a hand done carbon copy of the other. Could it be just a commercial enterprise as some claimed or was there something missing in each painting that forced the artist to come again and again to the same scene as a punishment for not letting his inner self out and on to the canvas.

Perhaps it does take a life time to realize that what you are doing is nothing more than self discovery of different facets of yourself. As one artist paints the same scene in different light conditions, times of the day, facing the weather at its best and worst, and one facet is cut and polished at a time to let the light into himself.

So often we sit shadowed in thought wondering what is next and forgetting to be right here now.  Loving every minute that we have to be ourselves, unique, creative, together with friends, and family, yet in our own world created by the next couple of thoughts, or thoughts long forgotten that left an active impression.

We are the only animal that can change the light that surrounds us at will. What an amazing gift we have given ourselves. We can emerge from darkness with the strike of a match, turn of a knob, flip of a switch, or by just pulling aside a curtain. How often do we chose to change from light to dark, and dark to light? From the moment we open one eye in the morning, to lighting the kitchen to find the coffee maker, pressing the button on the remote, clicking off the led reminder eye of the dishwasher when we empty it of the nights work. Light and dark we change our world every hour of the day.

CanvasCameraPen&Pencil: Life's stages from left to right.

CanvasCameraPen&Pencil: Life's stages from left to right.