Your sister Valerie and your Aunt Allison ordered an original DreamDogsArt collage of your greyhound Oliver from me several weeks ago. It was super-fun and challenging to work on, because I know all three of you, but I wasn’t exactly sure what your artistic tastes were. Here is what Valerie told me about your style:
Favorite Artwork: The Venus de Milo
Style: fashionista, urban, more Punk than bohemian
Interests: lately working on a Hindu wedding and drawn to the Indian culture
So of course I had to start with The Venus de Milo.
Then, I constructed a proud looking Oliver from several photos to get in all his best parts. I sat him at the foot of the goddess (who represents you) because the word is that he is completely devoted to you, and only truly happy at your side.
The columns. I know you lived in Rome for a while, so I wanted to include that. This is a photo of the Roman Forum I took when I was on vacation there with your Aunt Allison. I liked that connection too.
To work in the your Punk style, I found this photo, another I took, of a Roman flea market. I definitely wanted to include some graffiti and urban decay.
Oliver’s tag is the Shri yantra (a symbolic representation of divinity), the most important of all Tanric images. The outer triangles represent the subdivided energy-self of the Great Goddess. Perfect! I shrunk it down and placed it on Ollie’s collar, again to symbolize his devotion to his Goddess.
The flowered border on the left and the yellow and blue sky were taken from another Tantric image, emphasizing your Indian style. The Goddess, Chinnamasta, severs her neck to nourish the parts of her separated self…but in a good way 😉
The Three Birds: They represent several things: first, the Three Graces of Ancient Greece – Charm, Grace and Beauty. I thought these were good descriptions of Oliver himself. Second, they stand for the idea of past, present and future — a lovely thing to think about when you’re turning 23. And, finally, they represent Kathleen, Valerie, and Allison. Perhaps the birds are flying in different directions, but they are united by their gorgeous colors, and they form a triangle, one of the most powerful shapes there is, and a symbol of your special bond.
That is the anatomy of your collage. I call it Oliver’s Goddess. I hope you like it and I hope you have a wonderful birthday! xo Moira
I also put the finished collage on a product line for you at my store. You can get cards, prints, ornaments, t-shirts, etc. — enjoy! (Signed prints are also available directly from me. Click here to see a larger version.)
won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Overall Best First Book. It tells the story of an autistic teen wrongly accused of impaling his neighbor’s poodle. The teen sets out to clear his name by using his Sherlock Holmes-ian deductive reasoning skills. 
