Zion Pines

Zion Pines / oil on black canvas, 14x14

$175 road price, $225 gallery price

I spent two days in Zion National Park, painting like crazy, and propping my jaw shut, again and again. It is an astonishing place, filled with beauty and power and color and pattern as I have never seen. I made lots of paintings and took tons of photographs, and truly, only ripped myself away because of the call of Cedar Breaks, Bryce, Canyonlands and Capital Reef.                                                                                                                                  Also, on the Friday I was there (Columbus Day weekend), the park was very, very crowded. Thursday, I had no trouble parking and setting up to paint. Friday, it was 10 times more difficult.                                                                                                                                            At one spot, a busload of Japanese tourists pulled in behind me, and more or less surrounded me. Too many people, too much talking, too much picture-taking, too close. 

My paintings from the trip so far are up on the Utah Painting Trip page of my website, Jacobson Arts. (http://jacobson-arts.com). Four have already sold! The road prices are lower than the studio/gallery prices will be when I return. 

I'm working on connecting the page through PayPal, but am not there yet. So, if you see one that you want, please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, message me through Facebook, or call or text me at 860-442-0246. I am in places without much cell phone connection, just fyi. 

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Best Friends

JUST OUTSIDE KANAB, Utah, stands one of the great testaments to human endeavor and heart. It is Best Friends, a large and beautifully run animal sanctuary, rescue and adoption center.  Find it online at BestFriends.org

Peter and I have donated money to Best Friends over the years, and it's one of the recipients of my 101 Dogs project. My mother gave money to the group, too, and would call me up when the magazine arrived, and ooh and ah with me, and we'd discuss the dogs and cats and other animals and people profiled there. 

Visiting, I felt my mom was with me. That, and the mission of the place - Save Them All - brought me to tears. But I got through it, and on Friday morning, took a tour of Dog Town. The photos below are from that tour. 

You can give money to Best Friends, you can visit, you can even volunteer. It seems like a beautiful and purposeful organization, one that's well worth your time and energy, and maybe even your money. Please take a look! 

Puppies! 

The dog above had just arrived, and was in the new registration building (I think that's what it was called). It's a state of the art shelter, with tempered glass doors instead of cages, natural light that comes in through skylights, individual temperature controls for each run, and tons of other features. I was paying more attention to the dogs than to the description, I admit! 

Above and below, Iggy. He is a deaf pit bull, who is an ambassador for Best Friends, and for the dogs in the difficult-to-adopt area. Iggy's handler works on understanding those difficult dogs, and training them to make them more adoptable. 

These three pups were allowed into a puppy play room to greet all of us on the tour. The room has pretty much everything you'd find in a house - but the couch is hard plastic and indestructible. There's a vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, mirror, stairs, refrigerator, coffee maker - anything a puppy might encounter in a regular home. 

 

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Dog of the Day

Take your pick! 

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A Final Thought

"I've been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism." 

- Quincy Jones