Um…. Happy New Year!

I guess time has gotten away from me a bit. I don’t know why. I don’t feel like anything huge or substantial has happened, but, well, maybe we need a quick little 2012-So-Far-Recap? Here’s what’s been going on in Casa Z:

Jack

I don’t know if I mentioned this but Mr. Jackie passed his initial therapy dog evaluation and is now visiting an assisted living facility! He has three “trial visits” –one per month-before he ‘officially’ gets his wings. I’ve also been bringing him to rescue Meet & Greets to get him out, give him something to do. It’s hard because he can’t do the things he loves to do—go for long hikes, run with me, or play rough in the yard. I’ve kind of been putting off discussing it too much, but now we’re on Month—Nine? Ten?—of injury from the Iliopsoas muscle tear. Daily massages and motion exercises, weekly cold laser therapy.  Based on his progress, he’s been upgraded (downgraded?) from “acute” to “chronic” which means he will never fully heal and it will be something we probably have to deal with, on and off, for the rest of his life. Unfortunately we’re also dealing with complications from being physically unbalanced for so long- stress on his previously-broken hock ( a racing injury), possible nerve damage in his back and not only that, the shift in balance has resulted in a big honking corn on his right pad.  I can’t tell you how frustrating this is for the both of us. Therapy (cold laser, massage, passive motion exercises) have helped the Iliopsoas immensely but still, most of the time Jack is on 3 legs or limping significantly on 4. Last week we started using the ol’ Duct Tape method to smother the corn and that –along with a little hulling- has helped. Because Glucosamine and Omega’s weren’t doing anything, we bumped up to a non-prescription arthritis medicine called Duralactin, which hasn’t had much effect either… because of that… we’re now moving on to try Gabapentin, a prescription. I HATE to have such a young dog (4!!!!) on Gabapentin or other NSAIDs so early in life but at this point, I guess I’m willing to try anything.

Hopefully we can find some meds to help Jack feel better and then we can begin getting him ready for hiking/camping season and earning his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) certificate. I also think he could do Rally or Novice obedience for fun, to keep him occupied. I’ve bought a Clicker and am trying to brush up on Operant Conditioning and “Shaping” which is kind of hard for me to wrap my head around. Since he won’t be able to run with me anymore or do heavy hiking, I’d like to find something fun and easy-going to keep the lil’ boy occupied! Trying to stay positive about it all.

Lela:

It’s hard to believe Lee has only been with us 8 months- it feels like forever (in a good way, lol). She is SO ACTIVE and vivacious. The other day we had a playdate with my friend W and her French Bulldog—they rough-housed for 3 hours straight- then I took her hiking—then we did a trip to 2 different pet stores (looking for clickers, OMG they have tripled in price since they first ‘came out’ in the late ‘90’s!) then she did an hour of squirrel patrol in the backyard. Finally around 8 she went down for a nap. Yowser! After looking around and speaking with some local “dog people”, I found a highly-recommended Agility facility not-too-TOO-far away, and this spring she will begin Foundation Training! I’m hoping it will be a good outlet for her energy.

I also started jogging with Lela twice a week. It’s (emotionally) difficult because Jack can’t come along, and he used to be my running buddy. He cries and cries when we leave.  The weather up here has been relatively warm (we are 47” below normal this season, snow-wise!!) though and Lela could use the outlet, so I’ve started taking her along. She seems to like it a lot! Then I run 3 days by myself during lunch hour at work. I want to build her up gradually for spring.

Not to say it’s been all A++ fun. Lee’s really come out of her shell and in doing so, I’m learning to manage some of her more annoying habits. For example, she tends to get very amped-up and over-stimulated especially when trying to play with Jack (and ESPECIALLY if he won’t play back with her). At first I didn’t think there was anything wrong with her whipping herself up into a frenzy (“dogs will be dogs”), but a few weeks ago it led to a dogfight (their first serious fight!) where Lela ended up with a busted nose and two punctures between her eyes, and Jack had a ripped lower lip and tear on his front leg. Doing some reading, I found that YES, it is possible for dogs to get over-stimulated and to need “time-outs” if they are getting too rough! Just like children! I’ve never had dogs that required this before, but Lela clearly needs a bit of management/guidance when she gets super-duper excited, so she doesn’t spiral too far into the Stratosphere of Insanity, lol. Jack CLEARLY does not like it when she gets into those crazy moods and I need to intervene and calm her down before she thinks it’s okay to go apeshit on him and he decides to give her an A1 Ass-Kicking to take her down a notch. Not that I blame him for doing so. But still.

Art

I admit, I haven’t been doing as much art as I should be. I think that stems from a couple things. 1) this fall, I moved my art studio into the end living room of my house. Unfortunately this end of the house doesn’t get heat. Yep you heard that right! Now in all fairness, I should disclose that I have a small house- like- 700 square feet, if that. So the heat does move around, but there are no direct vents or anything in that end room. Plus the dog door is in there and it isn’t as tight as it used to be. I’m pretty hardy and enjoy being cold much more than being hot BUT after an hour or so of working your fingers and feet start to freeze and instead of putting on a fourth layer of clothes, it’s easier just to abandon the project and just head to the other side of the house to watch TV or something. 2) Second reason I haven’t been doing art has to be the Reading. I’ve been chomping some really awesome books lately including Van Gogh: The Life, which is about 1,000 pages of PURE slobbering WOW and Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend- A must-have for any dog lovers (especially if you grew up watching “Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop” on the Family Channel, lol).  Also, I Want my MTV which is great for reminiscing of the good ol’ days of the eighties when I would sneak around trying to catch Said Forbidden Evil Network when my parents weren’t paying attention. *Wink wink*.

I’ve also probably inter-library loaned every Colored Pencil and Pastel book in both the library and university (where I work) system so I could check out some new media. And I’ve read every one- page by page, exercise by exercise.  I love Monotypes but I need to find a nice medium to work with during the week when I don’t have 4 hour chunks of time for all the prep work and clean-up.  Something easy to pick up, put down. No mess. Something I will FALL IN LOVE WITH. I did a few Conte Pencil portraits for my brother for Christmas, and REALLY enjoyed them… well, except I’m not sure I want to work black and white all the time. Then I thought, “hmm. What about colored pencil? I LOVED cps when I was in high school and college.” So I’ve been playing around with them a bit. I have to admit, I don’t like “experimenting” much. I find it’s a waste of time. I want to jump right in, both feet, to a project and have it come out PERFECT. Colored pencils, especially when used with Turpenoid, were colorful and easy to handle (compared to painting with a brush) but require many layers to get those luminescent tones. Unfortunately I have bad wrists (beginnings of carpel tunnel?) and have been sleeping in braces the past few years—I noticed in a few days of using colored pencils, my wrists were really bothering me.  Around this time I happened to read Van Gogh: The Life and something about the book made me think about picking up my Oil Pastels again. Maybe it was all the reading about color and thick paint, and impasto… dunno… but that’s my next step. I’m starting out the year doing portraits of Jack and Lela for the art studio, Jack first! His sketch is almost done. Will post more about that soon.

I AM trying to work on some goals for this year. That’s another post. I’m sure I will be *HangingHeadInShame* when I look back on what I wanted to accomplish- and didn’t—in 2011 but oh well. Better luck this year!

But I do swear, I’m back to my regular blogging program and will have more stuff in a few days. Meantime, here are some photos from the last few weeks… enjoy!

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!

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’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?

1- Pumpkin Pie

2- Tofurkey Feast

3- More Pumpkin Pie

4- BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!

I was SUPER excited to find an aisle of really great dog toys at Big Lots on Black Friday. Big Lots can be a crapshoot, you know? A lot of times you only find the cruddy canvas stuff, but on Black Friday… YAY! They had some really great toys, including the “AKC” Wildlife line which I’ve always wanted to buy but didn’t want to shell out $11+ for. But $3? $5? Heck yeah! Even though Jack and Lela deserve a lot of coal  in their stockings this year,* I couldn’t resist. I also couldn’t resist waiting for Christmas to dole them out, so I decided to introduce a set of toys each weekend through Advent. Fun!   This weekend… Canadian Goose and Santa Possum!

*Victims of Jack and Lela’s Reign of Terror in the past 3 weeks:  Umbrella. Snow brush. Mortgage Bill. Recycling bin. 3 sticks of butter. My slippers. The Aloe Plant. 1 Bottle of Silverpoint Ground. The Pennysaver. 2 dog beds. Seat belt. Carpet in the back of the Scion. Sunday newspaper. Aluminum water bottle. MY SANITY.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Hi folks! Two pieces just added to My Etsy Store… Jack’s Dream (I posted this one on the blog a few weeks ago) and a new Graphite Drawing on Gessobord I’m calling “Ol’ Boy”. I did this a few days ago. It was supposed to be a Silverpoint, but the feel of Graphite on the roughness of the Gessbord surface was wayyyyyy too tempting. Will definitely be using more!

Jennifer Zalewski Studio- Etsy Store

“Catch of the Day”

11 x 14  Monotype

Akua Intaglio ink on Seth Cole paper

My newest monotype! I used brayers on the plexiglass for the first time  which pretty fun–led to the “roll” marks in the grass and sky.

More pics from the process:

My drawing taped under the plexiglass and hinged paper across the top. Jack is inspecting.

First colors painted on the plate, the paper flipped over onto the ink, and my marble rolling pin used to press the wet ink from plate to paper. The ghost is in the background. It came out REALLY light.

Second “run”… Pink tongue, Red toy! Sorry for the pinky tinge to the paper… bad lighting.

Next run was Jack’s brindling. Here it is painted on the plate. I used Pthalo Green and Crimson Red again to get a nice purplish-brown…

Here it is printed onto the paper.  There’s almost NO ink left on the plate!

4th run of colors…the green grass. I wasn’t happy with the way this came out at ALL. Hmmm.

Pondered what to do at this point. I tried to paint & drop another layer of green, but didn’t like that either. I decided to put the green and blue on the plate using a brayer, and print that way. I really liked the brayer (i.e. roller) marks! Will definitely utilize this technique more in future monotypes. Final:

I really miss this toy!!! I think it was called a “Squirrel Log” and we got it in the sale bin at Petsmart. It lasted a relatively long time (2 months or so) until Jack, for some reason, took a shining to ripping the plastic log into pieces and EATING them. So unfortunately, for the sake of his intestines, we had to toss it in the garbage. If anyone sees this toy around… please let me know!! I am dying to get another one (or 2, or 3)…

(Funny… I realized when making this monotype that the Squirrel Log had a striped tail… wouldn’t that make it a Raccoon Log? LOL!)

So excited!! Lela’s WISDOM PANEL INSIGHTS “doggy DNA” test arrived in the mail Friday. I know these tests *can* have laughable results but for $49 and a money-back guarantee, I was willing to take the chance. Apparently every single dog breed has its own unique DNA and by collecting a sample of spit from your mongrel’s mouth, you can send it to the lab for analysis and find out what breeds make up the mix. Wisdom Panel has 185 breeds in it’s database and seemed to be the most reputable of the brands I researched.

I decided to make a movie tonight out of the DNA collection. I have never made a YouTube movie before (with myself in it) but it was kind of fun.  Needless to say, Lela was NOT happy about “giving a sample up” and Jackie Boy kept presenting his ass to me, to be scratched. WTF Jack, you’re on camera! LOL!

Lela came to me as a German Shepherd/Lab mix. She has a black tongue and distinct look that makes me 99% certain that there is Shar Pei or Chow in there though… plus she’s only 40lbs which would make for VERY small GSD and Lab, right?  We get approached a lot about her and people have all sorts of guesses:

• Pit Bull Mix
• Akita Mix
• Chow/Pit Mix
• Shiba Inu Mix (someone once swore she was a purebred Shiba, LOL)
• Chow/Lab
• Terrier/Shar Pei/Lab/Boxer
• Carolina Dog Mix
• Carolina Dog/Jack Russell

I do have to tell one story though. It’s so funny that I had Jack’s physical therapist in stiches over it. About 8 weeks ago I was getting the dogs out of the car at a local state park, and there were 3 people kind of hanging around in the parking lot. They seemed nice and were chuckling as I hauled Jack’s ramp out and had him get out of the car via ramp. Anyway, one of the guys in the group was very excited when Lela came out. “Wow,” he said. “Those dogs are so rare, you never see them around!”

“Jack?” I asked. “He’s a retired racing ground.”

“No, the other one,” he said. “The Rhodesian Ridgeback. I used to have one. Man, you don’t SEE those dogs around here, wow!”

Now… okay. People are always guessing Lela’s breed but never… NEVER… has she been mistaken for a 90 lb., African Lion-hunting Rhodesian Ridgeback. Never. It was all I could do to keep from laughing in his face. I pretended an air of curiosity and intrigue though, asking, “Really? Rhodesian Ridgeback? You think?”

The guy was adamant. “Absolutely. She’s absolutely a Ridgeback.”

“But she has no…Ridge.” I pointed at her back.

The guy shook his head. “No no, they’re there.  Do the hairs stand up on her neck, and back, when she’s scared or mad at something–?”

“Um..Yeahhhhhh…”

“That’s the ridge!” The guy said proudly.

Lord have mercy, I was laughing for weeks at that one.

Anyway, Lela’s DNA -laden swabs (oops, I dropped one on the floor) are going back to the lab tomorrow and we should get results in about 3 weeks. I am going to be on the edge of my seat waiting for those results!! Stay tuned…