Rimrock Muley

Quite often I find an animal that is just fantastic in every stage of life that you just want to do it over and over again celebrating each stage.

I have loved mule deer ever since we moved to Colorado and I saw my first one.  It was up in the Rocky Mountain National Park and it was only a brief, fleeting moment but it was enough to tempt me to search for them frequently thereafter.

There are so many ways to depict an animal, at young stage, in the early stage of development and muscle and antler growth but then as you watch the animal development in years to come the antler development is awesome.

There are often antlers that develop after injury in a young animal and create a particularly unusual shape that stays with them their entire life every time they develop that years antlers. There are particular animals that their antler development is influenced by diet or environment.  You find a six or seven year old deer that has been feeding well and developed naturally and you will find a prize worth a thousand pictures, paintings, and cries out to be sculpted.

 This particular muley had a nice set of antlers with stickers and added points to give him royalty and dignity.

small work...loads of fun

I have several shows this year that have asked for donated work and at this day and age that is an expensive request  considering the price of copper.  However I feel that a small piece also gives a patron that either can not afford a large piece or has no room for a large piece the opportunity to purchase a reasonably priced piece that will fit anywhere.

Also I have learned that a lot of people are not aware of the love found in humane society locations (I hate to refer to them as pounds). So for the very three reasons above I have decided to do a piece that depicts the type of love and response one would find in adopting a dog or animals in need of a home.

I recently decided to replace my dog that I lost several years ago with another adopted dog, it was a tough decision because I really loved Snookum (my cocker) and had lasting memories that did not fade easily. This is actually my third adopted dog, one was a Cockapoo, one a cocker and now a Lhasa Apso.  They all were a little older than a pup and some have had either medical problems or emotional problems but they were all so worthy of loving.

In this piece which was as I was trying to make up my mind as to whether to adopt another or not (yes it is hard to love and suffer that lose but it is harder to have an empty hole in your heart), I wanted to depict the type of dog that is of no particular type of breeding but just lives to hear your voice and play with you.

I did this quickly while working on another piece and because of my love of dogs and my loneliness and also my love to work with warm clay it turned out just as I wanted. Notice how I had fun working with the warm clay in making the hair look like it is begging to be smoothed.

I call it Just One More Please and people respond to it just as I wanted them to but I also mention that next time they are looking in pet stores for animals to remember the shelters and all the love just waiting to be had.