July 10th, 2014
Rocky Neck, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

Well, there were many more boats moored in the harbor than are here pictured, but it was only by a late afternoon spark of optimism that I put any in at all. First thing that morning, as I was setting up, I met an older woman who was walking an older dog. The dog walked with difficulty and I knelt down to greet it. She put her forehead to mine and stood there, letting me shower her with all my affection (which for dogs in general, and her in particular, is sky high.) While I hugged and pet her, I noticed she had a tumor on the back of her left hind leg the size (shape and color) of a cherry. The skin on the front of the same foot had been scratched or gnawed off – as if she were trying to get rid of the pain by chewing off her own foot. Then I noticed she had another tumor on the back of her neck. She continued to stand leaning into me, soaking up everything I had to give her. I asked her walker about the sores, and she told me the dog isn’t hers, it belongs to her neighbor who doesn’t take good care of her. The neighbor is strange, and the walker is afraid if she confronts them about the dog’s health, they will stop letting her walk the dog – and the daily walks she gives her are all the dog has to look forward to in life.

They passed on. I was so bewildered at the story that it didn’t occur to me until later that I could have tried to do something to help. I felt that poor, beautiful dog’s quiet long-suffering yearning for relief and affection all day long and I do still. My painting – I stared at the water and tried to paint it because I love water and looking at/painting it usually soothes my mind. The very last thing I added was that orange buoy, after a suggestion from David to try and relieve the big bare swath of water on the right. It was his opinion, after I had, that it didn’t work. In my opinion, it did – completed the story of what had sent my mind to water in the first place – a glaring, throbbing round and cancerous sore that should not be there – but is.