Dog Art Today

Tag: poem

  • Dispatch from Dog Bar: Living in Circles

     

    Fire_pit_post_2

     

    Shortly after I moved to Grass Valley, I heard two poets on our local radio station KVMR discussing the Rainer Maria Rilke poem I Live My Life in Widening Circles.  They talked as if everyone knew this poem.  I had never heard it, but it stayed with me.  I thought I would share it today with some images from 2010.

     

    I live my life in widening circles
    that reach out across the world.
    I may not complete this last one
    but I give myself to it.

    I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
    I've been circling for thousands of years
    and I still don't know: am I a falcon,
    a storm, or a great song?

    – Rainer Maria Rilke

    Mushroom_post_2

     

    Darby_wine_post

     

    Easter_basket_2

     

    Tomatoes_post

     

    Front_porch_post

     

    Pasta_peppers_post

     

    Deer_wheelbarrow

     

    Birds_nest_post

     

    Darby_cashmere_post

    Thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing my blog with other dog art lovers. Wishing you a happy new year as you circle into 2011.

    Best,

    Moira and Darby

    P.S. Yes, I do make resolutions. This year I plan to:

    make art
    grow friends
    SUP on a Boga

  • Jonathan Swift’s Advice to a Dog Painter

     

    Jonathan_swift
    Copy of Charles Jervas's portrait of Jonathan Swift via LIFE

     

    Jonathan Swift died 265 years ago today.  His advice to dog painters is as incisive as ever.

    "Advice to a Dog Painter"

    Happiest of the spaniel race,
    Painter, with thy colors grace,
    Draw his forehead large and high,
    Draw his blue and humid eye;
    Draw his neck, so smooth and round,
    Little neck with ribands bound;
    And the musely swelling breast
    Where the Loves and Graces rest;
    And the spreading, even back,
    Soft, and sleek, and glossy black;
    And the tail that gently twines,
    Like the tendrils of the vines;
    And the silky twisted hair,
    Shadowing thick the velvet ear;
    Velvet ears which, hanging low,
    O'er the veiny temples flow.

    — Jonathan Swift (1665 – 1745), poem included in The Dog's Book of Verse by J. Earl Clauson.

    Via The Pet Museum.