As I pull into the yard to park the car, I am greeted by the barking of a dog. I get out of the car and Tatze comes running towards me to greet me. We haven’t seen each other for a long time.
It’s been a few years now since I was commissioned by the art-collecting couple to paint a portrait of their family dog Tatze.
Tatze is not only a family dog but also a talented entertainer.
So, Tatze was able to fit in the moment when he had everyone’s attention. First he laid out his red play bone on the living room carpet. Then he threw himself backwards onto the carpet and began to rub himself against it. After a while, he jumped up again, ran to an armchair with a chrome armrest and then approached the steel pipe with his nose until it tingled. A ritual he probably repeated again and again.
As I watched Tatze like this, I decided on a comic-cubist depiction.
And just as I enter the house, Tatze greets me a second time, this time winking at me from the picture on the wall.
It’s a moving moment to see Padfoot and all the other pictures I once painted in the house. Beautifully framed and each in a special place, they are a collection of works from all the creative periods of my life up to the present day.
It’s good that there are art collectors and friends.
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