Sleep, Sleep Canine Collage
by Jessica Rich

Inspired by a recent article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors (Issue 20), I printed a picture of my faithful (and darn cute) dog and set to work.  Normally, I am a “less is more” kind of person, so collage is hard for me.  My brain is always telling me to stop when I know there is so much more that could happen.  The layers and layers that build up and work together to form a cohesive piece of art tend to elude me.  On this project, I pushed myself several layers beyond my comfort zone.  For the most part it works.  There are a couple of areas that don’t make me happy.  They got jumbled and garbled and are generally a mess.  But anyone who’s ever read one of my tutorials knows that I think art is a lifelong learning experience, so I’m mostly OK with that.

(Hiking several years ago in the woods in eastern Connecticut.)

 Murphy is everything I wanted when my husband and I got another dog.  He’s “my” dog.  My husband’s dog, Koda, is rowdy, high-strung and prone to trying to nip if you attempt to lead him anywhere by the back of the collar.  He wanders off, aggravates the cows down the street, rolls in dead things, and generally ignores you when called.

(Snoozing on the couch.)

Almost from the day we brought him home as a puppy, Murphy has been calmer, more gentle and more laid back than his furry older “brother”.  He used to let me tote him around like a baby in my arms.  If he wanders away, it’s because he’s following Koda.  He’s mostly content to fall asleep in the summer grass and dream of his next bowl of food.  He wants nothing more than to fall asleep curled up next to me, head in my lap, silky ears being gently stroked.  He’s a bit of an odd duck.  As a pup, he learned how cool the tile is in the bathroom and learned to squeeze between the bathtub and the toilet.  Today, at 80 pounds, he doesn’t fit quite as well, but that doesn’t stop him.  He does, however, share Koda’s nasty habit of rolling in dead things, but I think he does it because he likes baths so much.

At this point, I think it’s fairly clear how much I adore my dog.  When I read Lydia Bee’s article about Canine Collages, I was immediately hooked.  Not only did I love the look, but the subject matter was right up my alley.

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