IN MY DREAMS, I'M NOT OLD

My inspiration for this painting was my old dog Truman. I adopted him many years ago when he was between 7 to 8 years old. He was at a local kill shelter and my sister and her family saw him there when they were looking for a puppy to adopt. She called me and told me about this big sad dog. I couldn't get that phone call out of my head. So I went down to the shelter to see him. He was black and very dirty and had this huge tumor on his lip that was the size of a golf ball. I walked up to his cage and he pressed the side of his face against the chain link and closed his eyes. I could just "feel" his sweetness and his sadness. I asked how much was the adoption fee and they seemed surprised. They told me I could have him and for $20, they had a vet that would take the tumor off. So the next day I went to get him and he was passed out cold from surgery. They had to carry him to my car on a stretcher and put him in my back seat. When I got home I had to get help to get him out of my car. I stood in the backyard with him and wandered if I had done the right thing. He didn't want to be outside by himself so I would stand with him as he did his business and then once inside he would lumber up onto my loveseat and go to sleep. He was the BIGGEST couch potato. He weighed in at 155 lbs. He would follow me everywhere and when I left for work, he would just sleep on the loveseat, never chewing on anything and he was perfectly housebroken. My cat adored him and would climb up on him and sleep on top of him. He was a faithful companion for more than 5 years and then he developed a fast growing cancer and I had to let him go to Heaven. He was such a good dog. I am SO HAPPY that I got to share part of my life with him. I wish that more people would take a second look at the older, possibly scruffier dogs. They just might be passing up a diamond in the rough!

I did this painting on an old cupboard door. I primed it, painted it in acrylics and layered papers on it and painted it some more and used ink and colored pencils and stamped it. I then sealed it with a protective matte finish. I would say that my style is Folk Art. I am self-taught. I paint what I love.

I have attached hardware to the back and it is ready to be hung. The dimensions are approximately 18 3/4 inches tall by 18" wide and 3/4 inch deep.