Chihuahua named Chewie

"Chewie"
© rebecca collins artpaw.com

January has been a very busy month. I have created around 14 different pet portraits for a variety of clients. I will start sharing those works here on the blog ....starting today with Chewie.  This sweet little pup is a new addition for a terrific repeat client.

Reinventing Myself one Hue at a time

Cancer sucks and loosing all your hair sucks, but being able to hit the reset button on your hair and on your sense of self is not so bad. Yes I am taking lemons and making lemonade I guess.  I think if I had not gone through hell and back last year and just decided to suddenly start dying my hair odd-ball colors some of my family and friends would shake their heads and say whatever .... as it is they all seem to genuinely enjoy my colors almost as much as I do. I also feel a bit like a sixteen year old girl taking selfies and focusing on my outward appearance so much.  You know what ... it is ok ... I get a pass, at least I am taking one. Once you have gone bald and your hair comes back you are allowed a little bit of vanity.

Some of you may remember sweet Lola that worked for me for years.

Lola's hair was often a different hue every other month and I always thought if only I was younger I would do that. If only, if only. Well I am finally younger and I will be enjoying this newly found youth for the rest of my life. 

Each new year I take a word or even a color and make that a sort of mantra in my life and artwork for the coming 12 months. This year is going to be about color for me, not just on top of my head but on  my walls, on my work table, in my camera lens .... yes I think it will be a year all about color. All hues will be explored and discussed on this blog and in life.
So my word of the year is color.
My color of the year is ALL ...  every last one of them and every chroma mutation, every hybrid and every dirty little tint in between. I want to breath them all in and exhale them as though every fucking cell in my body were becoming a new and different shade.

Not a Pretty Selfie

Rebecca and Sad Lizard Toy

Have you noticed we tend to just post selfies when we feel pretty?  Today I feel like a dog toy that has lost all its stuffing. Lately I often feel cute and trendy in my blue and purple hair, oh yes, a fearless woman making the best of a bad situation, but other times I look in the mirror and just see a chewed up dog toy. Back in August I had a double mastectomy and they literally ripped the stuffing out of my chest and sewed me back up. I could have opted to have some sort of stuffing put back in, but I chose to just keep moving forward and pass on additional work thank you very much.  When we have done that with dog toys in the past it never lasts and the toy is never the same again, better to let it become what it is going to be, the dogs don't notice, nobody does really. I am thankful that like this little toy I am still a favorite among those that love me. I have not been tossed in the trash bin yet anyway, and I am definitely not a choking hazard.

I dunno why I have to see the world through a four legged filter, but it makes for a fun post.  Don't feel too sorry for me, I am going to put on some lipstick and go upstairs and work on pet portraits today. I will be feeling like my old self in a jiffy. Oh and Art Paw rocked it in December yall ... thanks to all that helped me double my monthly sales in Dec. compared to the previous year.  I really needed that.

Yea, not a pretty Selfie today, but life is so good. I know what day of the week it is, and I am working! I am working.