Our pets become as much a part of our lives as people, and my dog Michelle, who I primarily called The Mook, was no exception. She became a more immediate part of my life a year or so after I lost my grandmother, although she had been around about 5 years prior living with other family members. She was a quiet, sweet girl, who didn’t need a lot of attention, but she could be politely persistent when she wanted something, like her dinner.
On October 14, 2022, I had to make the difficult decision to put her down rather than watch her suffer in pain. It was very difficult to let her go after 15 years as my friend and walking buddy. In the days after her departure, someone asked me if I had ever created a painting of her. I never had, but it got me thinking about the idea and it was just a matter of how to go about it. I decided to work with an artist I had worked with on another project some time prior. So I enlisted the talents of Anul Y. to help create a digital painting in vector style for this tribute.
Within a few days of collaborating and modifying the artwork, Anul sent me the file which I then tweaked and modified a bit more. I then added a background and painted the clouds behind her which was for me, more about representing the beautiful cumulus cloud-filled days that were so present on most of our walks, than her passing. The file was then sent off to a company that I’ve used to print digital canvases and the result is what you see here. There’s a whole strange wonderful story about what happened after I hung the artwork up, but I’ll save that for brevity, at this point.
I should add in closing that the piece really does offer some comfort in her absence as it perfectly captures her beauty and spirit absolutely. 