Reflections on art and dogs and me

Gustave Courbet painted wonderful paintings of landscapes, nudes, portraits, and all kinds of animals. My favorites of his paintings are of course, his dogs. Last year Aldo and I went to a Courbet show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We went from room to room in awe of the talent, the vision, the hand that created the work.
I found one that was of a greyhound sleeping. I could not find a picture of it on the internet to show you but I found a few others. Last night I sat on the couch with Aldo and Misha. Aldo was watching a movie and I was watching Misha. The place where I was sitting gave me a fantastic view of my sleeping pup. His tail and rear end were closest to me so he was forshortened as my eyes moved over his body and legs to his head. I went over and over the lines and shapes, redrawing them in my mind. It is the sizes and distances of shapes, their relationship to one another that are the important things. If I screw up either one the likeness will not be true. For me, it is the most enthralling puzzle in the world. How does that little piece of leg show up under the other one? How does the paw fit where it is? If I can't see his eyes is it because I am mostly seeing under his chin? Will my drawing look like my Misha? It is a compelling problem for me and one I never tire of. How does the light hit his head and where does a shadow begin? Drawing is everything. I have always felt that if I could really draw the relationships between the parts I will have truly done something. That is why I keep on being an artist.

Perhaps life can be about finding what is really important to you and then deciding what do you do about it? Vincent Van Gogh said "The best way to know life is to love many things" I could not agree more.