Three Geese

 

Three Geese / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 including shipping! 

sold! 

(If you want this painting and the button doesn't work, you can email me or paypal me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, and I will mark this painting "sold"! Someone might have gotten there before you, or the PayPal button might just not be working.)

EVERY MORNING, the dogs greet me with delight and unabashed celebration, licking and kissing me, wagging, rolling around on the bed. Doing dog stuff. 

I realized this week, that that morning greeting includes sneezing! Every day, all four dogs sneeze at least once every morning. What a lovely way to start the day. Wish human waking involved a good daily sneeze. 

I TRIED TO EXPLAIN the time change to the dogs this week, and they did not understand. In fact, it made me realize that I truly don't understand why we still do this. 

DOC AND I started dog school last week. My hope is that Doc will learn that while he's on a leash, he shouldn't lunge, barking and snarling, at golf carts, trucks with trailers,  other dogs, or humans holding things in their hands. He seems to be making progress. 

One primary notion of dog school is that I must and can stop him from practicing the behaviors that I don't like. Mostly, this has to do with distracting him with food and positive feedback. I think this concept is entirely applicable to me and my own life, though maybe less with the food and more with the positive feedback. 

Doc, bringing me a toy one morning when I was sad.

***

Coda

"Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen." 

- Orhan Pamuk

Canada Goose Revisited

 Canada Goose / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 including shipping

sold!

If the paypal button doesn't work and you want to buy this sweet goose, please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

FIRST, I'D LIKE TO KNOW when toothpaste tubes got so small. Toothpaste seems to be more expensive than ever, and the tubes are teeny! I know the same thing has happened to individual cups of yogurt, and to Chunky candy bars, and some soda bottles and heaven knows what else, but it was the toothpaste that got me going the other day in WalMart. 

Dismayed at the price vs. size ratio, I looked for maybe not the absolute cheapest, not some Toothless Abner's Dental Polish, but a known name, middle-of-the-road price. I chose Crest in a pathetically small blue box for nearly $4. 

When I opened it, the toothpaste was black! Well, maybe a deep, deep purple - but really, it was black. I thought it had gone bad. But, wait, can toothpaste go bad? I never knew it could. It smelled OK - and what would toothpaste smell like if it HAD gone bad? Pickles? Garlic? - so I used it. 

Turns out it is charcoal-based. Ugh. Really. Ick. It makes black foam in your mouth. Disgusting. 

Sometimes new is just not better. 

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Coming Up

AN OCCASION FOR THE ARTS virtual show takes place this weekend, Oct. 3-4. I will be doing a live Zoom presentation each day at 11 a.m., and this will be re-zoomed on the AOFTA (https://aofta.org/) website at noon. You can reach my live sessions through the AOFTA website, which is probably the easiest way to see them, but if you want me to send you the link, please drop me an email at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com. 

I'll probably be painting, and will give a tour of the studio, but mostly I'll be there to talk with you, to show you particular paintings you might like to see, and answer any questions you might have. 

Paintings on my website (Jacobson Arts - http://jacobson-arts.com) will be on sale during the show, and shipping or delivery will be free!  

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A Last Thought

"How do geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we humans know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us, there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us certainly when to go into the unknown."

- Elizabeth Kubler Ross

Three Geese

Three Geese / Oil on black canvas / 4x12 / $78 including shipping

THERE ARE PLACES IN MY HOUSE where the dog hair collects. It's probably a combination of the layout of the house, the air currents, the architectural and decorative elements, and where the dogs (and people) tend to hang out. 

In this house, there's an unexplained step up from the kitchen to the living room, and at the base of that step, the hair collects. It's right by the trash can, so every time I go to toss a paper towel in the trash, I bend down first and swipe the linoleum at the base of the step. And every time - Every Time! - whether it is one time a day or 20 times a day (back when paper towels were not a luxury), I collect a small pile of dog hair. 

I started thinking the other day that there are surely places in my life and in my mind where things collect, in much the same way. Bits of architecture and pieces of mental furniture where thoughts become entangled, where they stop developing. Where they stick and stick, again and again, and probably will forever. 

I think these are thoughts and ideas about people, and thoughts and ideas about plans - and even thoughts and ideas about problems. The thoughts hit the bottom of the step and just stay there, collecting dust, until I either swipe them up and toss them out, or just forget about them. 

***

For Today

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." 

- Abraham Lincoln