Life is Short, Play with Your Dog!

Commencement remarks to Stanford graduates by Steve Jobs in 2005 are worth repeating:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

In other words, life is short, go play with your dog!

Focus on Mixed Media Collage

I'm gearing up for a show in Seattle called Best of the Northwest. It will be ov 18-20th, at the Cruise Terminal, Pier 9. I'm showing my mixed media collages. So I am making millifiori canes like crazy, and rolling out clay and getting it ready to build my pieces with. I'll be posting some of my newest ones here. Below is a sample of some of the canes that I have built and use for my pieces.

Sanctuary

This is my summertime spot to read, nap, look at the stars, and enjoy my garden! It has a nice cool breeze even when it's super hot outside. I'm headed out there now to have my breakfast.

It is the end of summer almost into autumn, and this is when my show season goes into full swing. I have posted my show schedule on my website, and sent out my newsletter, but for those folks who enjoy reading my blog, and keep up with me on facebook, here is the blog version of my schedule. Hope to see you out there!

Excerpts from Everyday
Contemporary Still Life
Bush Barn, Salem Oregon
Sept 3-Oct 24
Opening Sept 10, 5-7pm

September 25,26
Corvallis Fall Festival
Central Park, Corvallis

October 14-17th
Local 14
World Forestry Center,
Miller Hall, Portland, OR

Teal Gallery
120 SW 4th Street
Downtown Corvallis

A Big Thanks to all of you who have supported my art career by collecting my art, emailing me, coming to my shows, and commissioning paintings! Couldn't take this trip without you!

Nummy Dog Biscuits

Once a year I bake the dogs their very own biscuits. I like baking them myself because I always wonder what's keeps those biscuits "fresh" for so long on grocery shelves... will they still be around decades from now? I like knowing the ingredients, and I feel this way about our food too. When I pull them out of the oven, and tell them, "these are for you guys"....well, Chamois and Tully are certainly appreciative! Tully's the one with the intense stare, a perfect portrait of his personality...focused!

Here's the recipe I clipped from the local paper years ago.

Debbie's Dog Biscuits

2 1/2 cups flour (I used spelt flour but you can use regular flour)
1 1/2 cup whole grain spelt flour
(you can use part rice flour or regular flour)
1 cup instant potato flakes
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup grated cheese

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, and stir well. Add all of the wet ingredients and mix well. You might have to ditch the spoon and mix it up with your hands. You want a thick dough, because you're going to roll it out to cut cookie shapes. Shape the dough into a ball, and place on a good amount of flour (so it won't stick when you roll) and roll out to about 3/8ths inch thickness or thinner...you don't want them too thick so they will get crunchy. Cut out your shapes, Chamois prefers the hearts, and of course, Tully prefers the bone shapes. Keep adding the dough back to itself and cutting out shapes until you have a little pile left and free-form that into your last cookie.

Bake 40 minutes at 300 degrees. When they are all done, I put them back in the oven after I turn it off to let them get crispy and crunchy. I leave them in the cooling oven for an hour or so.

This makes a lot of dog biscuits. About 3 to 4 dozen depending on the cookie shapes! Enjoy, share with your doggie friends!

Royalty in a Blue Chair

I paint a lot of yellow dogs, and there is no wondering why, when you see that half of my blog (such as it is) is about Chamois, my yellow labrador. Because I take my art on the road all over the west, I've met a lot of yellow dog lovers along the way. So I thought I'd post my latest yellow dog portrait. I call it H.R.H. (Her Royal Highness), right down to the Royal pearls!!! Chamois of course, is my model. The painting is 24x36 acrylic on board. It's up in Portland, Oregon in a show that I have at Realty Trust, in Lake Oswego.

Planting Time!!!!!!!

Yeah!!! It's Springtime!!!!

Here is the end of the picnic table I use for my pot planting area!

This weekend I planted all of my hanging baskets

then I planted violas and pansies in my blue and white pots.

I LOVE blue and white pottery,
and blue and white pottery appears in my paintings often....
I usually make up the design, I always think I'm going
to copy some beautiful pattern, but when the brush hits the canvas,
I seem to want to head down a brand new trail.

Chamois is helping in between chewing on a bone,
and keeping Tully away from her bone,
even though he has his own bone to chews on.

Some of my blue and white indoor pots with succulents!
Succulents, another obsession!