Oh gosh, guys, where do I even start? I’ve been dreading writing this post, not really sure what to say, how much to share, etc. Let’s start from a few months ago, I guess…

About 18 months ago, both Penny and Duke were diagnosed with cancer… Penny cutaneous lymphoma, and Duke hemangiosarcoma. Penny passed away December 30, 2023. This past week and a half, we found out that Duke has liquid around his heart… we were initially dealing with loss of appetite, low energy, and odd symptoms of faster breathing and some shivering. We were basically informed that he might not make it through the weekend… but after a rough night where none of us got any sleep and lots of crying… Duke felt a bit better in the morning. Each day he’s eating more, having more energy, and REALLY wants to go see people and dogs. So, somehow, a week after thinking it was our last hours with him, he’s still here and wanting attention. We know from past experience that cancer is cruel and will give you false hope, so we are enjoying the extra time we are given and trying to make each day a good day for him.

It’s hard to concentrate on anything for any length of time, so obviously, I haven’t been as productive. Besides, I’ve been wanting to stay near and give Duke anything he needs/wants. We’ve been taking him out in the wagon, so that he doesn’t have to walk as far if he doesn’t have the energy. He’s figured it out pretty quickly, so he walks on his own and then knows he doesn’t have to save any for the return trip and we’ll put him back in the wagon… soo cute.

I also wanted to share some of my art in this post…

I was working on some gesture drawings, I was supposed to to 20 sketches from reference, I did 5… I finished the Cosmos digital watercolor painting… and I think the night we found out Duke had liquid around his heart, I drew and painted the blue one on my own because I needed something soothing to do so I did that. I attended a class the next day, but didn’t draw along, my mind wasn’t really there. Ummm… this week was pretty light on live classes which was good, but I did work on this color wheel sphere thing on my own… one of my neighbors is also an artist and we had discussed how to shade and I had mentioned using three values of a hue, and then a color shift for the darkest color. I drew her a couple of examples traditionally for her to keep… but my mind kept going back to the idea of it. And in the chaos of Duke’s condition, I needed something soothing. I like to color… so I took a color wheel that was creative commons, and then created a few spheres of each color with a color shift for the darkest shade… it took a couple of days, but I’m happy with the result. The tiger was a draw-along on Wednesday, and since Duke was feeling better it was a bit easier to pay attention in class.

I was trying to post weekly, but obviously, my mind is on Duke right now… I have no idea how long we have with him, and we want to give him all our attention. So, I’ll just sign off for now with the until next time I usually do, and hope we get another good week.

Until next time…

~nic