Jennifer Zalewski Studio

Only the Good Lord Above knows how much, blood, sweat, tears, pleads, threats, teeth grinding, head banging, frantic clickering, and treat dispensing went into this measly photo session near our Pink Christmas Tree. Although both dogs think it’s great fun to steal the tree ornaments with abandon, actually POSING next to it is apparently a very, very dangerous affair. I mean they gave me the whole bit… cowering, ears plastered against their head, hurt expressions, etc.  I’d pose one and the other would jump up and bolt off with tail tucked so far up their ass I wouldn’t be surprised if they got a rash within the next few days. (Okay I’m exaggerating a bit BUT STILL IT WAS A TRAUMATIC PHOTO SESSION ON ALL FRONTS AND THE ONLY PERSON TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK HERE WAS ME).

I hope everyone has a Happy Hanukkah/ Merry Christmas/ Happy Yule/Etc Etc Etc!

Well it’s been an exciting week for Little Miss Lela Mae. First of all… she experienced her first snow! At least, I’m assuming its her first snow. She came from a rural shelter in coastal South Carolina so… well… I’m assuming they never get anything substantial. Not that our first dusting was anything great and all, but… well… she went absolutely BALLISTIC. I wish I had thought to press the video button instead of just taking pics!  She did everything… zoomies, passing fly-by Gator Mouths at poor Jack, leaps in the air, snow-rolling, etc etc. Silly Girl.

And in other news…

DUM DUM DUM.

We got her Doggy DNA results!!

(Part 1- Who’s Your Daddy?)

So according to the Wisdom Panel Insights test, one side of Lela (I’m calling it her “sire” side, since it’s on that side of the chart) was half Chow Chow, half Beagle. Her dam side was 3 generations of hopelessly mixed heintz 57s. From that, they were able to pull out traces of several breeds (hold on to your hats, this is a roller coaster):

• Border Terrier (yeah, I can see it)
• Cane Corso (a mastiff???)
• Weimeraner (well, they are a BYB breed so maybe)
• BEDLINGTON TERRIER (the ones that look like lambs. Yeah. LOL!)
• SUSSEX SPANIEL (happens to be one of the rarest breeds recognized by the AKC. What the…?!?!?!).

I got a great 5-6 page DNA report, including a certificate, which was pretty swanky. All in all, I’m totally thrilled with the results. For $49, it was the most interesting thing I did all month!!

• The Chow part: Absolutely. She has that Chowy look about her. She has their straight stifles and hocks to a T. The solid purple tongue. She can be pretty aloof and is cautious with new dogs. Not a barker.
• The Beagle: When I CAN get her going, she bays like a beagle. She has the worst ADD I’ve ever seen. No focus- constantly in hunting mode. Is cheerful, flirty, loves people. Is beagle-sized.
• The trace breeds on her dam’s side: Meh, not so sure about those. I can see MAYBE some border terrier- her size, love of hunting.  I’m thinking though 3 generations of mixes–probably her Mom looked like the archtype pariah dog–which–interestingly- is what the Carolina Dog actually is (unfortunately they are not in the Wisdom Panel’s DNA database so they wouldn’t have turned up as a trace breed. Maybe because they aren’t a breed per say, but a genotype?). A feral pariah dog of the United States. Our own Dingo.

So if we have to come up with a DESIGNER DOG breed name for Lela, we might call her a “Bow Bow.”  Or, “Cheagleina Dog”. Or “Caro-Bow Bow”.

Jack, however, would still call her “A Royal Pain in the Ass.”

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!

I’m really excited… this is my third “serious” monotype and definitely my favorite so far!

“Goosed”

11 x 14

Monotype

Lela –and her new goose stuffy- were my models for this one.  Surprisingly the sketch was super easy and poured out of my pencil within an hour. And I liked it (!!). Usually I struggle for a week or so (at least) over my first drawings but this one just came out exactly the way I wanted it.

(Lela was a bit concerned that I snatched away Goose for a little close-up work. She has thirty other stuffies laying around but LORD HAVE MERCY Goose was the one she wanted. Goose and only Goose). In the pic above, you can see the drawing taped under my large plexiglass plate. The paper is hinged with blue tape just above it. And there is Lela… giving me the skunk eye, lol.

“Don’t borrow him again, ‘kay?”

First order of business was working on the background. I actually used brayers to roll on layers of a nice grass green, covering the whole drawing. Then I used a paper towel to wipe the green away from Lela and Goose’s forms and Q-tips to add some lines and texture.

I had my paper (Seth Cole… it comes in a pad in the sketchbook section of the local art store. I LOVE this stuff. It’s not as thin as “eastern” paper, but not as heavy as “western” paper like Stonehenge… a great in-between)… I had the paper hinged on the top of the plexiglass plate. Once I was done working the green ink, I swung the paper over and onto the green, then used my trusty marble rolling pin to press the ink from the plate to the paper.

Wall-ah!

Next comes Lela. I use paintbrushes this time to block in her form. It was fun… her muscular gams, knobby elbows and little feet. So different than Jack’s physique!

Really happy with how drop 2 came out. Lela still needed a bit more, but she was coming along!

Third drop was an umber (very proud… I mixed it myself!!) for the goose.

After looking for this awhile, I decided to bring the umber more into Lela’s body too. Not a lot… just a few touches. Then I decided to try to mix a black for the rest of the goose and some final touches. I HAVE a black, but I didn’t want it so harsh… so I tried to mix. LOL. I ended up with a dark greenish-black:

To be honest, I was disappointed at first but the more I studied it, the more I liked that it was more green than black. I think black-black would have been way, way too much.

Here’s a photo (sorry for the blue cast to the paper… need to scan it for better results). I decided to call it “Goosed”.  I’m thinking to enter it in an upcoming art show, if I can muster up the nerve to enter.

Final stage… clean-up. Ugh! Monotypes are sooo messy. I didn’t take any photos of that anyway so no worries, won’t bore you with that.  But how about… the messy workspace?