Introducing Gerrit

Well he is finally finished. My very first original sculpture, Gerrit, a Frisian Stallion preforming the Spanish Walk. Gerrit is a Frisian name and it means brave and hardy which is appropriate for a frisian horse as they were originally breed as war horses.
Originally I started this horse sometime back in 2012 and he was originally supposed to be a portrait model of Totilas in extended canter. My original in clay was very incorrect and to be honest a bit of a hot mess. I couldn't see the errors in it that I can now that I have learned so much more about sculpting conformation, anatomy and movement. So I jumped the gun and cast him errors and all, and have spent the past year working the resin copy into a correct, balanced piece.
Now the he is done comes the not so fun parts. I need to figure out how to advertise him and cast him; do I send him to a professional who does all the hard work or do I have his mold made and do the casting at home? How much to charge, do I add magnetic bases, etc, etc... Decisions, Decisions! Well without further ado, here he is, all decked out in primer. I am painting him to see what he looks like with clothes on so those pictures will be come up in the future.

Loss and Sadness

So even though I haven't blogged in awhile, I have been working A LOT on my sculptures. Wagner has now transformed into a spanish walking andalusian and I have started another new sculpture in clay and it is coming along quite quickly. I will post some pictures of both soon.

I guess though I came to blog today about the sad loss of my littlest cat, Piper. She was actually my mom's cat, but she came to live with me the past 3 months as she had IBS, esophagitis and pancreatitis. She needed up to 5 meds a day, plus fluids and a lot of food. I was basically a vet tech for her, giving palliative care. It sounds like a lot to put a cat through, but she responded so well. She was completely back to her old self. While she was here, she played with the grump, Mable; slept with Daphne on the couch and sat with me while I sculpted. She was a special little thing, who never grew up. One day she just wasn't eating as much and she wasn't herself. My vet came out twice last week to take blood and give me more meds. On Friday she called at 12:30 to tell me the blood work was bad. Piper had pancreatic cancer. 2 hours later and piper was the sickest she had ever been. We put her to sleep at 7 pm.

She was doing so well on her meds, I honestly thought she would be around until the summer. I knew this was how we would lose her, but it just seems so sudden. I never get use to this. Losing loved ones never gets easier, it gets harder with each passing. Knowing the pain that you have to endure the next time one gets chronically sick. I still have 3 cats, a dog and a horse to go through this with. It feels like a sacrifice; we get 14-16 years of pure love from these little people and the sacrifice is the pain of losing them and making the decision to put them down and end their pain. This is a feeling I will never get used to; a feeling I never want to get used to.