I love how Archie's fur looks in this picture. Finbar loves Archie and though it's hard to see, Finbar has positioned himself in the warm and cozy butt v with Archie's tail curling around him...but I cropped that out.

Somewhere I have a slew of pastels, paper, and all I need to set up an easel and try to recreate this photo which I'd love to do. But pastels are dirty, messy and the thought of cleaning up after a single drawing session is enough to make me say "the hell with it."

I lived in a house once with a huge kitchen, lots of windows and lots of room to paint or draw. The floor was linoleum and easy to sweep and wash after I was done.

That was the only time I enjoyed pastel work because I could leave the easel up for a week without disturbing the flow of the kitchen and what its original intent was.

I often miss that house, but I can't wallow as it was far away from most of my family and I was lonely when I lived there. I had the room for big parties but no one to invite.

Rather than a Mary-special, cartoon photograph, I do wish this was done with pastels, framed and hanging in my living room. (sigh)

But that challenges my pre-exisiting ideas on what is art. If I can love what this looks like by clicking on a few special effects in my software, can it possibly be esthetically pleasing to my eye? And, if that's the case that it is, then is art so easily created when my whole life I saw it as something one must labor over?