January 12, 2009

Photo of Halfmoon Bogart Jackson 1998-2008
Drawing of Jackson from Adventures of Sophie by Sharon Lee

This week I began the second book of the Adventures of Sophie" series, "A Walk in the Woods". This book is based on the daily forest walk of Sophie and Jackson, Sophie as a young pup and Jackson blind, and feeble, near the end of his time on earth.

I had a much harder time coming up with a character of Jackson-I think the problem was capturing some of his enthusiasm for life which was evident when you were in his presence. After a few conversations with people who have known and loved Jackson I was able to get an image on paper that I liked and expresses his true energy.

Peace Always

Sharon

May 25, 2008

I had a satisfying day of painting, gardening, hiking and yoga today.

As far as "Jackson's Trip to Heaven, I added more white to clouds on top of the pink which is giving them a more lofty look. Also added a rainbow behind the dog (who is now orange) to symbolically represent the Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge is a poem that is THE poem for dead and dying pets. In fact on the few days before and after I put Jackson down I was sent a link to this poem, sent the poem via snail mail and had it recited to me by the fellow that was cremating my dog. My feelings at the time was "Fuck the Rainbow Bridge". I just wasn't in the mood to hear about happy kisses, clinging together in joyous reunions or looking into the trusting eyes of my faithful companion. I was upset and just wanted to hold on to that feeling. The disturbing feeling I got from the Rainbow Bridge poem reminded me of a story involving my daughter and I many years ago when she was four or five years old.

We had just arrived back in central Pennsylvania after visiting family in northern New Jersey and I decided we should get a bite to eat before heading home. I insisted on going to Eat and Park as I knew they had a salad bar where we could eat immediately and quickly move on and go home. My daughter was against going to this restaurant as she was troubled by the wait people who push their smiley cookies on kids. My daughter is one of those rare kids who did and still does not like cookies I told her that when the waitress came over after our meal to present my daughter with the smiley cookie she was to say, "Take your smiley cookie and shove it up your ass." Of course she has much better sense than I and did not say anything but "thank you" to the waitress when she was given the cookie but we both had a bad case of the giggles when it was offered.

April 14, 2008

I would have liked to continue the thread I had going for the past 2 days about the piece "Not Quite Dead", but today have to put my eldest dog down. No matter how hard I try to forget, I can't help watching the clock and thinking of the event that's about to occur. Jackson is a 10-1/2 year old Vizsla with a loving personality and an obsessive compulsive nature. Until he became really ill his main objective of the day was to love well and search out un-attended foods. Over the past few days I have been wondering aloud to him of all the wondeful things that await him once he has donned his worn out sick body. There will be plates filled high with food strew about for him to eat, open garbage pails filled with food, a lake with unlimited fresh drinking water, a soft warm bed and a body to curl up next to. His sight is back once again and he can race with his old friends Tuck and Magik, 2 greyhounds that used to run with him in the nearby woods. "This time", I tell him, "You will be in the lead".

I've decided tomorrow to stretch a canvas and start my next painting which will be tentatively named, "Jackson's Trip to Heaven". I intent is to document it'sstages in this blog recording the progress as I work including a photo of the painting at the end of each painting session. I have not yet approached a painting in this manner so it will be new to you the reader and me as well. In my next blog I will continue with writing about the piece "Not Quite Dead" (See April 12 & 13, 2008)