Anyway, we were almost done with the bag of 4Health when I found out about the recall and put the bag in the garbage.  I go to work, come home….. and  find the 4Health bag AND an apple in the back corner of the bedroom. Seriously–just like the photo. I didn’t doctor any of it! What the heck?

I find the whole set-up strange. Who did it?  The half-an-apple is mine. I ate most of it for breakfast but put the rest ‘up’ to save for later–yeah, I do that. I never waste apples! Who got it down? Who stole the bag of dog food from the kitchen garbage and then lay it up against the bed? It must have been Jack… but why didn’t he get into it and eat the 2-3 cups left at the bottom? He loves ripping things up and eating them.  And what about my apple? Someone carried it to the bedroom and left it sitting there on the floor. It must have been Lela because Jack LOVES apples and would have snarfed it down. She must have done it long after Jack decorated the bedroom with 4Health.

Times like this, I wish I had a webcam!!!!

Well, the Never-Ending linocut is coming to an end. I had the greatest name for the piece, too….  And then I forgot, lol. I hate when that happens! I have lots of time to brainstorm on my lunch-hour runs (training for a 10-mile road race) but I don’t carry a notepad with me, of course. And one day, chugging slowly up a long and arduous hill–I hit on the BEST NAME EVER. It was fun, it was catchy, but it wasn’t kitchy. I was excited about it. But then my mind rolled onto other things and it wasn’t until later on that I was like, “Oh! The linocut name! What, um, what was it again–?”  And I couldn’t noodle it out of my brain again. It was gone. Crud.

I printed the first 10 prints of the edition in Red Oxide (Akua Intaglio ink). The top photo is more accurate in terms of color- more of a burnt orangy-brown. I love it. The shot of them all drying is darker than ‘real life.’  Four prints are on Canson Rives Lightweight, 115 gsm paper. When I bought several sheets of it last year, I was worried the 115 gsm was too flimsy for multi-colored prints- and I put it aside for a year–now finally pulling it out to experiment. I found it was the perfect weight for hand-printing. Unfortunately someone (*coughLelacough*) trampled most of the stock, so for the remaining I had to switch to heavy Rising Stonehenge, which is 245 gsm. I love Stonehenge but it’s hard to work with if you aren’t using a press  And I wasn’t on this run. Hmf.

It’s been beautiful lately- hot even. The Two Muses have spent lots of time in-and-out of the studio–patrolling the yard, killing more voles (ugh), and enjoying frozen marrow bones from the butcher section of the supermarket–Yum!  We can’t complain–it’s been a spectacular spring so far.

“Taking the cover off the dog bed to wash it? Thanks Mom! Let me ruin the insides while you’re not looking!” $120 orthopedic bed down the drain…

“Just a little trash we left out for you as a Welcome Home from Work….”

“You didn’t want that cream cheese, did you? I dug it out of the garbage, licked the rest out of the package, ripped it to shreds and will now have the runs for a week. That’s okay, right?”

“Hey Mom, look! While you were out with Lela and Rae, I got into your Lunch Bag!”

“Did you think I couldn’t get into a garbage can that had a pedal-lid? Sucker.”

“Your oranges? I dragged them out the dog door and they’re all over the yard. Have fun picking them up…”

“I enjoyed eating the block of Polishing Compound for your linocut tools that I found on your studio table a couple hours ago. Mmmm, chalky. You don’t mind me having diarrhea for 3 weeks, do you?”

“A new skill to add to my resume! I learned how to paw open the cupboard, steal a bag of large biscuits and eat half of them! If only I remembered to put it back.”

“This bag of cheese was for me, right? You accidentally left it on the counter when  you brought Lela out for a quick run. Better buy an extra roll of poop bags at the dollar store tonight!”

“Ahhhhh.  It’s a lot of work keeping Jennifer on her toes, but someone has to do it–!”

This is Rae, our most recent foster. Actually, “foster-with-intent.”

To be honest, I have had such a hankering for another dog. It’s something that I’ve seriously thought about, seriously weighed the pros and cons. I’d love another bundle of fur & poop in the house. I think Lela would benefit immensely, since Jack has decided that Bitey Face- Gator Mouth is suddenly beneath his dignity. Another dog would be fun for me and would get Lee Lee off poor Jack’s back.

I talked to some dog breeders. I talked to some folks at the SPCA. I talked to someone who needed to rehome the cutest Fin8nish Spitz EVER. The fits just didn’t seem right for one reason or another.

Then. Enter Rae.

Rae-Ban came up from a high-kill shelter down south, and obviously had very little dog-v-dog interaction or socialization during the formative years. She played very rough, but was all kisses and cuddles with people.  I talked to the rescue and they thought she might work with another rough-playing dog (aka Lela), plus she fit my ‘requirement’ of being really kissy and cuddly. Sooo… I took her in as a foster-with-intent to see if she would work in our household.

Holy Crap.

Lela is a dog. So is Rae. However–combined TOGETHER– they morphed into a raging, insane Tsunami. They loved each other.  They loved each other so much that they were constantly beating the shit out of each other. And they each savored every minute. Their playing was SO rough that I couldn’t leave them alone for a minute, even to shower. Rae would just bear Lela down and grind her into the dirt, grab her by the neck and shake her (like prey) or take her by the scruff and drag her across the lawn like a caveman (!!!!). She’d grab Lela’s ear and swing her around, throwing her a couple feet before leaping over to suffocate her into the dirt. I’ve seen rough play before, but never THIS rough.  Rae was a monster. It was… I don’t know. It was insanity. And Lee just loved every minute… well… unless it escalated out of control, which is was wont to do. And they never stopped. Never. They couldn’t be left unsupervised for a second, and I had to constantly wade into the fray, separate them, and attempt a cool-down.  Rae had to be crated during the day when I was at the office, then again crated at night or when I had to jump in the shower because neither girl understood how to keep their mouths off each other. I mean don’t get me wrong– they had their moments of gentle play, chasing each other around the yard and sharing a stuffed animal but those moments were constantly eclipsed by Wrestlemania  Death Cage Match.

It became something I constantly asked myself. How much rough play is okay? If they both seem to be enjoying it, is it okay? At what moment would it escalate and turn into a dogfight (which happened a couple times)? How do you make dogs understand the command to ‘simmer down’? Could an under-socialized dog like Rae learn to play more gentle? Or was this just husky play??  How long would it take? Do I dare leave them un-supervised, even for a moment? How does a 1-person household supervise 2 insane dogs? Would I need to crate her every time I had to shower, take out the garbage, run errands, etc? How in the world would I get them to ride in the car together and not wrestle while I ran in the store? What if I was gone and they escalated? They always… always… got so rough that Lela would yell, I’d have to intervene or a skirmish would start… how do you monitor that with only one pair of eyes?

And Jack. Enter Jack, aka The Fun Cop. At first, Jackie was absolutely appalled at the play and was attempting to intervene in a way that I didn’t feel comfortable at all. Rae didn’t find his interventions appealing either and began taking pot-shots at him in the house, especially at times when he was struggling to get up with his bad leg, or tottery on his haunches while trying to lay down. He became afraid of her in the house, and wouldn’t be in the same room with her. Outside, she tucked her tail in defensiveness when he came at her like she was a hapless squirrel and I had to shove myself in to keep him in check. With some work they both began to feel a bit more comfortable with each other, but…. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

INSANITY!

Now my nerves were not only shot, but I found myself not wanting to leave the office at 5 pm. (Can I spend the night at work? Please? LOL). Lela and Rae were constantly out of control, having great times until it escalated and… they suddenly weren’t.  Jack snarked and bullied  her in the yard. She snarked and bullied him in the house. No one listened to me anymore. If I tried to cuddle Jack or Lee, Rae would shove her way in and not share the attention.Yet she always had a smile on her face and a bushy, waggy tail–such a sweetheart! I was really just enamored with her. She could turn from a rough-playing sumo wrestler into a mushy kiss factory in 2 seconds flat!

But. Sigh.

After our fostering period, I inevitably decided that Rae wasn’t the best fit for our household and decided not to adopt her. It was heartbreaking because she was such a good dog.  Perfect, really: She was beautiful, she was playful, she was kissy, she was cuddly.  She, Jack and Lela combined in the best way, and yet the worst way. I’m sure I could have made it work but the chemistry between all 3 dogs was too electric, my nerves were just shot to bits. You know how water, vinegar and baking soda are great separate but together explode all over the place? Yeah, like that.

This experience has made me realize how wonderful and how awful having a pack of high-energy dogs can be. It’s made me doubt my abilities as a dog handler and a dog person. And my heart–it just breaks over Rae. I usually don’t get teary-eyed over fosters but having her here as a “potential” family member plus her over-the-top personality just won me over. It didn’t work for us and that makes me really sad. Maybe this is what you can call “failing at fostering”, but not failing in the usual happy way.

I’ve never really heard about people who take in a foster-with-intent and then decide not to go through with it. I know I can’t be the only one, because some dogs don’t gel and some gel so well that the house becomes a 3-ring-freaking-circus. So for now I sit, back down to Lela and Jack.  Will we find a good third dog to add to the family? I don’t know. I’m kind of nervous now. LOL, I think Rae Rae scared me straight! Maybe two dogs, with the occasional foster, is the way for us to go? I dunno. Just another thing to mull over, I guess, on the Crazy Highway of Life…

Have you ever started something and it just felt… wrong? That’s how I’ve been feeling about my White-Line linocut of Jack and Lela. I haven’t made any mistakes (surprisingly, lol) but every time I’ve slid my gouges along the block, it’s just been … meh. There’s no fizz. There’s no sizzle. It’s just… there.

I hemmed. I hawwed. A trip to the University library was in order for some inspiration.  Perusing the shelves, I found a book featuring the single-color woodcuts of Unichi Hiratsuka, and was really inspired by the power of black & white. I thought about it a bit. It felt so good carving my Wilk linocut, but wasn’t sure I wanted to hand-color again (after hand-coloring 31 prints, yeah… yeah. Not for a LONG WHILE.). I surfed around the internet. I visited my favorite printmakers’ websites. And I decided just to go simple and carve a regular ol’ single-color linocut. I decided to really dig myself into it, graphic-ize the image with strong lines and make the dogs ‘pop.’ I re-sketched the block and went to town with Sharpies. Man, it felt so good!! When you have that electricity,  you know you’re on the right track.

So… that was mid-April.

Then there was carving. Carving, carving, carving. Brindles take a LONG time to carve.

More carving. Carving, carving, carving. Weeks of carving, working through Jack’s fur a couple hours a night at a time…

I love battleship gray linoleum. It can be tough to carve when it’s cold, though, even with sharp tools. Several years ago, I read about a neat trick:  leaving your block in the sun to “warm up”–really makes your gouges slide through like butter. Isn’t that a great idea?

The weather has been great the past couple weeks. It’s been really nice to warm up my block in the sun, plop down on a patio chair, and just enjoy the laid-back vibe of working outside.

(The black husky flipping Lee Lee? Our latest foster. Probably deserves her own post, more on that escapade later lol).

Jen

To be honest, I had no idea what hand-coloring 30+ pieces would entail. If I never see this print again I will be a happy woman, LOL! I could only do a few per night before my wrist would ache from all the colored pencil layering and so getting all of these done (plus 10 more, who didn’t make the cut) was tedious, to say the least.  Tomorrow they will all be trimmed and then packaged up and shipped off to our Exchange Coordinator, amazing artist Diane Cutter,  in Puerto Rico. After all 30 printmakers submit their art, she splits everything up so we each get 1 print from all 30 artists.  I can’t wait to see everyone else’s take on the “Endangered” theme…

Jack and Lela spending some time in the studio with me. Quick, look! Lela is caught napping during daylight hours! It rarely happens!

Next on the docket? The Sleeping Pups White-Line Print. Except it kind of morphed a bit. More on that late. Right now I need to play referee– there’s a white cat in the front yard and all hell is breaking loose on Planet Lela–.

Jen

We almost… ALMOST… made it 7 days without any debauchery. None. Nil. Wowza!  Sadly, I forgot to block the garbage can when I left for work yesterday and I came home to my poor bedroom, defiled. Nothing like coming home after a long, hard day at the office and have to pick garbage out of carpet fibers.  

I think we all know who the culprit is… lucky he’s so handsome! LOL.

Jen

I have been remiss in posting about this on my blog, but I’ve been honored to be invited to participate in the BTR Sighthound Rescue’s Spring Fundraiser! Xan Blackburn, of GT fame, has invited 7 artists from across the country to participate in an ARTIST’S AUCTION.  We’re all donating a Pet Portrait, and I think almost every media is represented- soft sculpture, sculpture, pencil, paintings, linocuts (that’s me!).  CHECK IT OUT!

Jack has been in rare form this week.  Actually–Jack is in rare form, 24/7. 

We had a few incidents this past week that I was happy to document for your viewing pleasure. Behold the Naughty Greyhound:

Monday, I went running with Lela (because of the gimpy leg, Jack couldn’t come)–and he had a Major, Major Meltdown. While the Bow Bow and I were huffing and puffing through 4 miles of hilly running misery, Jack decided to “help himself” and steal a half-bag of XL dog biscuits AND a half a loaf of wheat bread. HE ATE IT ALL.  For hours afterward, the poor guy looked like he was about to give birth to 25 puppies. Thanksgiving in April, hooray!

Yesterday evening I was working on my blog post about New York when I heard the tic-tic-tic! of dog nails racing across ceramic tile and then a huge CRUNCH. What the–?? I turned around to see Jack attempting to wrench a bag of dog food through the doggie door. Now granted the bag was mostly empty except for crumbs, but I was planning to re-use it for garbage and had it stowed up and away- or so I thought. Jack’s plan was foiled when he couldn’t get it through the plastic flaps in time. I ran over and grabbed it, watching Jack’s morose (guilty?) face as he realized he’d been caught thieving and was not going to get to shred the bag apart and lick the insides.

It’s a den of iniquity, I tell ya!

He sent me this photo of Lela with his and Mom’s pugs, Amos (sitting) and Benny (pensive).  They were all on the window seat, afraid to miss any outdoor Squirrel Action. I’m not sure where Jack was during this time- probably upstairs having a meltdown, lol.

I went to NY hoping to get some Akua Kolor ink, but the two stores I visited- Dick Blick and Pearl- didn’t have any. Well, DB had black but that’s it. Disappointing. Well, I didn’t have much cash on hand but I did get a few linoleum blocks, some sizes I can’t find at the local store. Yay Pearl!

I also picked up a few sheets of decorative paper in Soho at Pearl River Market (not the same as Pearl the Art Store, but only a few blocks apart)- probably the most awesome store I’ve ever been in in my life. Seriously. How did I live in NYC for 4 years and never find this place? It was 2 1/2 floors of Everything Asian- clothes, fabric, paper, food, pottery, sculpture, paper art, books, etc etc… WOW. The paper alone was amazing!!! And pretty cheap, about $4 a sheet. I believe it was Nepalese Lokta paper, but not sure. I’m also not sure if it’s acid-free/archival but I thought it would be fun to buy a couple sheets to experiment with.

Can’t wait to play with this stuff!