The Rag Dog
A story about the resilience of us
Please pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, get comfortable and let me read aloud the story of the Rag Dog and what happened when he came to town. In the 8 minute video you'll see my original handmade artworks that make up “The Rag Dog”. Click the button below when you're ready… 👇
I really hope you enjoyed it!
This story was inspired by the emotional lives of both individuals and communities and what I saw of the ways we have come together to support each other during 2025 and 2026. Our connected-somehow-in-real-life communities are what matters. The people around us, in our spheres no matter how near or far, are our ground/bedrock. And our shared memories, knowledge, experiences and skills are valuable resources that we live by - whether we realize it or not.
Our communal spheres can include nearby and long distance friends and even people we've known who have died or things written in books by people (living or dead) with whom we feel an affinity. I've thought of our collective emotional lives as a big exuberant shaggy dog made of scraps of everyone's memories and knowledge. Everything we share and have shared in the past with each other has helped and can help us today. Our shared experiences are the documents of our past resilience and potentially a how-to manual of being resilient now. Someone, somewhere, sometime has dealt with this issue or something like it before and their experience may be very relevant to ours today. It's up to each of us to see another's experience and then to add our own.
Here's a related quote I wrote in one of my notebooks…
All of those thoughts combined in my mind to make my story The Rag Dog.
After finishing the original artworks, as I reproduced my story for both printed and digital formats, I did my best to reproduce my original artwork so that the colors and patterns of my handmade paper collage shows up just as well as the ink, acrylic and gouache illustrations - and the hand written words too. The Rag Dog is another of my “artist books” by which I mean that the entire book from idea to real-life original artworks to the downloadable digital files were carefully made by me - and are only available on a limited basis - like fine art. Both printed and digital editions of The Rag Dog are available via this link (free preview).
My one-person art exhibit at the Aurora Gallery opening is Feb 6 (tonight!) and I'll have a few copies of The Rag Dog there. I'll also have a number of my other artworks - paintings and other artist books - many of which are about real-life and communities too.
If you're curious about my paintings and can't visit the gallery I've put most of them on this blog post (click here)
The gallery will also have quite a spread of my artist books…
… And as for the artist books on the above pictured shelf in the gallery: many of them are available on Substack (link here) and from the bottom of my page on Blurb (link here). My children's books are available as free ebooks on Storyberries from the bottom of my profile page (link here). Most of the above links will give you free previews of entire books. You may wish for a second cuppa if you click and read 😉
Thank you so much for all of your support as I've worked towards this exhibit!
The Rag Dog story should be read by adults, as well as to children as a reminder. Too often the poor and ragtag portion of humanity is looked upon as distasteful, or even dangerous, when all they're missing is shelter, food, and water. They've been displaced by health, circumstance, and cutbacks, and have no inner circle of support. Children often share innately. Adults judge first. This sweet story is an anthem to the importance of sharing and caring for others.
A rag tag tram team of huskies that pulls a sled of quilts sketched with stories yet to be painted with a new scene yet to be assembled in a land of the free ragamuffins. Thank you for bringing your talents to delight those who have not tried yet. May your pens never run out of ink and acrylics dry perfectly to bring the colors to life.