A Fond Farewell to Charissa the Border Collie

Charissa(a poem by me)
Charissa, a braver dog never was hired,
She used to herd sheep, then her human expired
Adopted by beach lovers, oh lucky she!
Now, Charissa relaxes each day by the sea.

Photo © Big Air Photography Big Air Photography

Thanks much!I 'met' Charissa the border collie in late 2005 when her new human parent contacted me to do a portrait of her. Charissa was adorable, as you can see. But she also had a compelling story, and she seemed like such a happy-go-lucky dog in spite of losing her first parent. Her second parents clearly loved her madly and gave her a very good life. I loved the dichotomy between her past life and her life as it was when I created her portrait. Both were a journey-dog's "dream life", yet they couldn't be more different. (I always thought her story would make a GREAT movie! )

I was buoyed by Charissa and her story. Her portrait was an interesting one. Her mom wanted to merge her 'two lives' in the portrait, using symbols and settings. I loved the idea, and we ended up with what became one of my most memorable portraits ever (or so people tell me!). That is a big compliment to Charissa and to how one little energetic dog can live such a multi-faceted, interesting life full of fascinating experiences.

Photo © Big Air Photography Big Air Photography

Being so smitten with Charissa's story, I decided at the time to pitch a column to a magazine using Charissa's story as the template. In the piece, talk about Charissa's past and present lives. I'm always so impressed by how accomplished this little doggie was. It's a good reminder of how one  - in this case, one dog -  can make such a positive impact in so many people's lives. I am sharing the piece with you here (bottom image, left ). You can click on the image itself and read it online, or you can also download a 200 dpi PDF here, if you prefer.

Yesterday, Charissa passed away, amongst loved ones. She was 14.5 years old.
Rest in peace, Charissa, and thank you.

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Trend shopping on a beautiful spring day

Happy Spring! Spring has sprung here in Boston and Saturday was a great day for my hubby and I to go out and enjoy the day. For me, the day was double-duty, serving as both a "date day" with my hubby as well as a trip to go "trend shopping" and see what colors and motifs are hot right now. It's fun!

I am a chocoholic and have never tried the Teuscher brand of chocolate, even though I've walked by their Newbury Street store many a time. This time, we went in. The window displays were so pretty, and I just love to see what the chocolate companies come up with to market their chocolate for one of chocolates biggest holidays, Easter, which is right around the corner!

See what the store looked like on entering. A beautiful wonderland of bright colors, paper art and chocolate!

Check out some of these lovely, colorful packaged gifts, ready for the kiddies and adults alike to enjoy on Easter Sunday!

"Frog Prince" paper art chocolate gifts

Easter Bunny chocolate gift boxes

Funny Cows with Bells

These are beautiful eggs with foil-wrapped chocolate candies inside. I ADORED these - look at the art on them - so classic, just like when I was a kid! I wanted one for myself, but honestly,  I have enough "stuff"... the photo was the next best thing!

Another funny Easter Bunny display. These bunnies were larger!

Adorable chicks complete with fluffy feathers...

And...EGGS!

Some delicious looking, foil-wrapped chocolate treats...

And even the gift-wrap for customers' purchases displayed some punch!

Hotel Chocolat is our other "chocolate stop" on Newbury Street. This is a British company that makes some fantastic chocolate! They really have their identity down as is evident from the cute scene out front with the little bike with basket and flag. They had some very interesting offerings for Easter as well. Just as fun, but conceptually a world away from Teuscher's offerings!

This is one of the Hotel Chocolat's quirky offerings for Easter: the "Egg Sandwich".

Here is another Easter treat: the "Egg Doodle", which is a pretty chocolate egg surrounded in a "doodled" chocolate bar. (They had this in other chocolates as well, not just "white".)

I did not take too many snaps in Hotel Chocolate, but here was one of their products that I was intrigued by, since I dislike chocolate that is too sweet, this would be right up my alley!

Next up was {SIGH!} the Johnathan Adler shop. Going inside is like going into Willy Wonka's Factory in a way. It's fabulous! everywhere you look there is eye candy. I am so inspired by Johnathan's wonderful, refreshing, tongue in cheek, yet high-end aesthetic. So fun and fresh! He is inspired by mod 60's but everything he does is uniquely modern and uniquely his own. Bravo to Johnathan Adler! I just love what he is doing...

I adore how he mixes a creamy matte white with bright SILVER or GOLD accents, and sometimes a bright color or two. It is simply delicious!

Domesticities...

Johnathan Adler's line of stationary in the left side of the cabinet above. Wonderful stuff.

This starry snake trivet is one of my very favorite things in the store!

Next up was Border's Books! This was one of the most charming cards I saw on Saturday, in Borders. It's by Up With Paper!, a company who produces some wonderful pop-up greeting cards. I thought this one was just above and beyond --  it is spectacular! (I truly wish I got the name of the artist of this card. It was on the back of the card.)

Here are some cute magnetic note pads by (I believe they are by Graphique Du France). I really enjoyed the delightful magnetic closure as well as the die-cut cover. I enjoyed the matte, coated texture of the cover.

 I enjoyed seeing so many pieces of the collection all at once in the display. It was a good example of taking an art collection, and really utilizing all of the elements a little bit differently on every piece. In the end, the entire collection clearly goes together so well, but each piece is distinctive and unique. Well done!

In addition to checking out individual products, I also enjoy taking snapshots of the entire displays. It's a good way to study color and motif trends on a larger scale and see how they are put together. Most of these displays were from the vast Paperchase area in Borders. I was sad to see that the company did not credit the individual atists on the back of their pieces. From this discovery, I am guessing that they buy art outright and do not pay royalties. In any case, it was an observation I wanted to share with you.

I hope you enjoyed walking through my trend shopping day with me!

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My Latest Project In Progress

I've mainly been posting essays and resource information of late, but not much in the way of artwork. Why? Because I've been hard at work on my art licensing portfolio. Unfortunately this is the type of work that I can't show-and-tell at this point. It's been a big undertaking. It's exciting to see my ideas come to fruition in the form of my portfolio. It's a thrill to be finding "my voice" in this arena, as well. But it's a bummer to not be able to share it with all of you! But, with some hope, hard work and good luck, I will make some deals this year. Then, I'll be able to share some wonderful news, as well as some of the art!

Over the past few years I've been studying art licensing quite a bit and with the help of some great people I've acquired the tools to seek out (or seek in, rather) what I could bring to this industry that is unique and unlike anything else that I see out there. As I've been working on my collections, I am seeing my own specific "art licensing style" emerging organically, and it is very exciting. I like what I see, and it's a great feeling to see my work in this light and getting ready for "prime-time".

I've been so entrenched in this work and I can't help but think of how crazy an artist must be while getting ready for a show such as Surtex. The amount of work that I've been putting into just ONE collection alone is astonishing. Central images, patterns, frames, borders and icons... and some of my collections only have some of the above! Anyway, to see my ideas come to life this way is awesome, and I know will be substantially MORE gratifying down the road. So I just wanted to say a BIG CHEERS to all of the artists I know who do this work and bring joy to so many through their art on product. I will be joining you soon and I am SO looking forward to it!

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