The Faces of Spirit: An Unfinished Series

2019-2020

Graphite on paper

Spirit was my Boxer/Labrador mix dog for almost three years. He was a rescue that I adopted from a shelter. As many rescues do, he came with some serious issues. It took a long time for him to trust me. Once he learned to trust me, he did so like no dog ever has before. Before his passing in late 2020, I had done two drawings of him. I initially planned to do a series of three or four pieces. The first shows his contentment while sleeping. The second illustrates the sheer happiness he learned to enjoy after recovering from abandonment and neglect issues. Losing him during the pandemic was extraordinarily painful. He was the one thing in my life at that time that was steady and predictable. Spirit in Repose – graphite on paper – 11” x 14” – 2019 This drawing is of Spirit sleeping on the couch. His head resting on a pillow, and his body is firmly against me. Whenever possible, he would have some part of his body touching me while he slept. This illustrates the depth to which his trust had grown. Spirit’s Happiness – graphite on paper – 11” x 14” – 2020 During the time I had Spirit, he was not always a happy dog. I adopted him from a shelter knowing he had separation and abandonment issues. I worked with him several times a day to help him adjust to his new home. He had never been around other dogs, and his previous owner did not play with him very much, if at all. Spirit had to learn to play. After the first year with me, he had discovered that both training and playing were fun activities. This drawing shows how happy he had become during that year. The transformation was incredible. I felt I had to capture his new-found happiness in a photograph. Almost immediately, I knew that photograph had be re-created as a drawing.