All posts tagged Sage

Flickr

By Sarah Regan Snavely On January 2, 2012 In Buy Art Here!, Living with Greyhounds With 2 Comments Permanent Link to Flickr

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I killed my flickr account last month. Forgetting that the images on this site were linked from my flickr account, I couldn’t see a downside. Now the archives of this blog are broken. Time to fix. Where to start? I think I’ll do a month every week…

I’ve added the latest kiln load to my shop. They’ll go live on Thursday AM. Next kiln load will be available sometime at the end of January. I’ll have some more large boxes along with a few small and some medium sized boxes as well. Small sculptures will be coming up in February.

In other news, poor Sage injured himself at the dog park. One foot under the dog park fence, a very slight yelp, and he kept on running. He’s a tough one.

Damn you, Dog Park Fence. Thankfully only stitches.

Gray and green.

By Sarah Regan Snavely On May 30, 2011 In Art making, Life in North Dakota With 3 Comments Permanent Link to Gray and green.

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Cold. Wet. Rainy. Gray.

On the bright-side the basement is dry. That can’t be said for most of my neighbors. Or those along the Missouri river here in ND. Flooding. Sandbagging. Stress.

I don’t know how long it has been raining – just that it seems like we’ve had more rain this year than ever. If memory serves, we’ve had three nice days in all of May. I long for 70+ degree weather. I had to turn the furnace on last night.

And no Greyhound Gathering in Kanab, Utah. And no Art Show at Dewey Beach, Delaware this year either. I sit with no set events this year. No finalized engagements. The calendar is wide open with not a deadline in sight. I’m not sure I like this.

But my memory box goal for this month has been met. The boxes are drying and should be ready soon (rain/humidity is slowing the process down… slow drying is a good thing… but it takes forever…) There are also smaller smoke fired greyhound and saluki sculptures ready to be fired. In about a week things might shape up around here. The kilns will be firing, at last. I’m excited for the results. I’m really liking this batch of boxes and small sculptures.

The hounds and I have been squeezing trips to the dog park in between rain storms. I’m not crazy about them running on wet grass, but there has been little choice, of late. They need exercise and while the leash walking does fulfill some of that, it isn’t enough. The dog park ground is squishy and saturated like a sponge that needs to be wrung out. The hounds don’t seem to mind it or the baths when they get home.

Back to work. May has been a productive month. Memory boxes started. Small sculptures started. Shipped a larger piece (cross your fingers UPS will be kind in shipment). Have two other larger works possibly sold. Am *this* close to completing a $36,000 grant at the library job. It’s all good.

Laughter is the best medicine.

By Sarah Regan Snavely On May 1, 2011 In Miscellaneous With 5 Comments Permanent Link to Laughter is the best medicine.

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You know when your dog is doing something inappropriate, but instead of correcting him, you laugh?

No? Just me then? Okay…

I’ll attribute it to the blizzard conditions and being cooped up in the house. Or that sometimes he’s so darn cute.

And snow it goes

By Sarah Regan Snavely On April 30, 2011 In Life in North Dakota With 1 Comment Permanent Link to And snow it goes

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The temperature was near 70 degrees Fahrenheit. And the weatherman was warning of an upcoming blizzard. Such is spring in North Dakota. Turns out, this time, he was correct.

Winchester woke me this morning around 4AM. The wind was howling. He wanted me to be awake to hear it, I’m sure. The wind sounded like a train, but just a bit of snow. Wet and heavy. Then more snow… and wind. Ugh. Blizzard.

Just a few days ago, spring was here. The dogs and I have been visiting the dog park more often. We are all out of shape. We all love the sun. To be outdoors again.

Yes, every couple of days it snows. Then green grass and sunshine again. Just this time, the wind came.

This snow knocked down many (14?) of the very, very few trees that are in Bowman. We are short grass prairie. Every tree here has been planted. They don’t make it on their own.

I know there is green grass under the snow. The snow will be gone tomorrow or the next and the warmer temperatures will return. Such is spring in North Dakota.

Dog park wish.

By Sarah Regan Snavely On February 11, 2011 In Art making, Living with Greyhounds With 2 Comments Permanent Link to Dog park wish.

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The weather was beautiful today. The sun is shining and the snow is melting. I thought we’d try the dog park. Didn’t really go as planned. Going to be awhile. Lots of snow out there. In the photo above Sage hasn’t sunk to the bottom. It is belly deep for him in most places. Wish we could use the dog park…

We came home instead. I tried to encourage the hounds to run in the backyard. Mostly they looked at me, but Annie and Sage did play a little tug to blow off steam.

I have mixed feelings about February. On one hand, I would like it to be over so that we will be closer to Spring. On the other, the deadline for the DSU exhibition is at the end of February. The 25th to be exact.

I know I can get everything finished. But its going to take some work.

I’m shooting for 24 pieces finished and ready to exhibit. Some of those are not fired yet. Ulp.

I’m worked on four pieces today – putting the finishes on them. Several are going to need wooden bases, so that’s sanding, staining, more sanding, and then finishing. I want to start them now so that they have time to dry thoroughly. That’s #1 on the To Do list for tomorrow.

I’ll fire the unfired work on Monday. The kiln is loaded but I’m not *quite* sure everything is dry – especially the trooper’s hat piece. That piece along with the new Prey Drive piece, the rabid rabbit, and the Faith In My Lucky Rabbit’s Foot are all in the same kiln load.

The wall pieces need their hanging devices. Not quite sure how I want to do this yet. This is also on the list for tomorrow. No weekends off until all the work is complete. All the work will have to be photographed before it’s packed to go to the gallery.

Also, I’m fairly sure that all of the work will not fit in my vehicle for one trip to Dickinson. Going to have to make two trips – that’s 180 miles round trip for one trip. I’ll all work out. Need to get to work.

Winter is getting longer.

By Sarah Regan Snavely On February 10, 2011 In Living with Greyhounds With 5 Comments Permanent Link to Winter is getting longer.

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As I watched the Greyhounds lope around the backyard this morning, I thought, “Sure has been a long time since they’ve had a real workout.”

They’ve taken the lack of exercise really well.

And then I brought three garbage bags of shredded paper into the house. I use it for packing. For transporting sculptures. Etc.

Then I did a few more chores, thinking nothing of the bags of paper. Came upstairs to this.

LOL! Yes, Sage, it’s been a very long winter!

Let it snow!

Slow going.

By Sarah Regan Snavely On February 5, 2011 In Life in North Dakota With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Slow going.

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or Watching Clay Dry. Nothing exciting to report (which is a good thing, I guess). Waiting for work to dry so that I can fire. Hoping to bisque fire tomorrow. Don’t want to be too hasty. Blowing work to pieces is no fun.

Until I know more, thought I’d share a photo of Winchester and Sage – who look somewhat like one LONG dog. Keep warm.

Update post.

By Sarah Regan Snavely On January 31, 2011 In Life in North Dakota, Living with Greyhounds With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Update post.

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The furnace just kicked on blasting warm, dry air. It’s Cold outside. Currently -16 F and dropping. It’s hibernation time.

Hard to believe I took this photo a couple of weeks ago – most of the snow had melted off the deck behind the house and Frank dog sculpture needed his -her?- photo taken. Nearly impossible to get a resident Greyhound to sit like Frank for the photo. We got close…

Also during those weeks I began a nasty rabbit sculpture. Grumpy and it comes out in the art. Hard to find photos of snarling rabbits even with Google images. Not pictured is the nice, but overly eager Greyhound she’s snarling at.

The past weeks have been dog park-less and the hounds have had to be satisfied with occasional leash walks and romps in the backyard. I’ve tried to capture them in the snow in the yard with the camera, but the results have been less than satisfying. Dogs probably feel that way about the quality of the exercise. So much snow, but nothing like last year… yet.

Also worked on a new piece tentatively titled, Faith in my Lucky Rabbit’s Foot. This is a piece that I’ve wanted to make for a long while. I’ll find those original sketches in an old sketchbook and post them. This is another piece I hope will be ready for the exhibition at Dickinson State University in March. Going to be close.

Sage waits for the weather to break. He is a tough dog and tolerates the weather more than any other Greyhound I’ve owned.

But we all want the weather to warm up.

Three years old!

By Sarah Regan Snavely On January 30, 2011 In Living with Greyhounds With 5 Comments Permanent Link to Three years old!

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On tuesday, Sage and Annie will be three years old!

What wonderful hounds they have grown up into.

Seems like they were just babies a second ago. I’d do it again in a second (but with all the knowledge I’ve gained with raising these two). What a wonderful ride it has been.

Back to work.

By Sarah Regan Snavely On December 26, 2010 In Art making With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Back to work.

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So I spent my Christmas working. I’ll admit it. But it’s not really work in a way. Putting the finishing touches on this two Greyhound sculpture. Hard to stay away once these pieces get close to finished.

Not quite finished, but getting close.

Annie says, “Needs a bit more work right there!”

Also worked on some bunny rabbits. For some reason I kept thinking of toasted marshmallows as I was working on these. I know the hounds can read my thoughts, but am I starting to pick up on their’s?

Three slightly bored Greyhounds are not the best of studio partners. Work? Who needs to work? Like Winchester here, as I was attempting to photograph these pieces for this blog. How do you get dog slime off the camera lens again?

Then Sage kidnapped a roll of bubble wrap – trailing it around the house as he RAN.

Who? Us? We aren’t guilty!

A break in the weather

By Sarah Regan Snavely On December 7, 2010 In Living with Greyhounds With 6 Comments Permanent Link to A break in the weather

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After days of cold and snow, the weather warmed enough for a trip to the dog park. By warmed, I mean around 28 degrees F.

20 degrees seems to be the tipping point as far as weather warm enough for the dog park – if we get weather warmer than that with NO wind – whoo hoo! Dog park we go.

The Greyhounds love to run. They know where there going as soon as we turn north on the road to the dog park.

Sage, especially, loves the snow. Winchester and Annie pretend it doesn’t exist, but Sage rolls and rubs himself in it.

The snow doesn’t hamper their running and playing as long as it is soft and powdery. When it thaws a bit, then freezes again it gets a coat of ice on the top. The ice, not the temperature, will hamper our dog park trips. Ice slices Greyhound feet.