Animals

Why are we so infatuated with animals? I suppose we see ourselves in them, in a way. We project onto them our own emotions. Sometimes, their struggles become our own. I often ask myself why I like painting animals so much. The answer is fleeting, at best. I know that I am much more interested in painting wild animals than I am in painting domestic animals or pets. I think it's because our encounters with wild animals are so much more fleeting. I want to capture that moment and preserve it. Remember it. How special it seemed. As though, just for one moment, God was looking right at me and saying, "here is a gift." Whatever it is that keeps me painting the creatures of the desert, I know I am not done yet.

My newest painting of the desert cottontail:

"Approaching." Oil on board, 10 x 8 inches. ©Karine M Swenson 2012.

There is no telling if I may one day start painting domesticated animals and pets. I no longer say "I will never..." (I have proved myself wrong, one too many times.) But for now, I will stick to the wild things. Those creatures who come and go at their leisure. I will continue to try to capture those magic moments when I look out the window and see an unexpected visit from one of our tenacious desert creatures.

A few photos of animals in Germany: (these are nearly all domesticated animals.)

This is a "lion's head rabbit." I have never seen anything like it before. So fat, compared to our little desert cottontails.

These rabbits were pets, and they actually had ROLLS, they were so fat.

What animals most inspire you?

The dogs of Bangkok

It doesn't take much walking around in Bangkok before you notice the stray dogs.  These dogs are known as "soi dogs."  Soi in Thai means side road.  These dogs are most likely community dogs, which means that they tend to stay in the same neighborhood, and often, people in the neighborhood feed them.  In the past, city authorities controlled their numbers by euthanization, but that practice was abandoned with the arrival of the SPCA nearly eight years ago.  The SPCA ran a campaign declaring that killing the dogs went against Buddhist beliefs.  Since that time, the numbers of soi dogs has steadily risen.   Sometimes, the dogs seem healthy and normal, but more often than not, they will be mangy, scabby and limping.  One of the dogs we see frequently near our closest subway stop has severely infected eyes.   I won't write too much about these dogs, but if you are interested, you can read a really good article about Soi dogs here.

It's hard to know if this dog's eye was infected, or if it had been damaged due to some kind of trauma.

The good news about the soi dog issue is that there is at least one organization taking action to help.  You can visit their website by clicking here.  Even though I know these dogs don't have the pampered life that our spoiled dog Pono has, most of them do seem to be fairly well-fed.  I have seen traffic stop for a dog in the middle of the street, although I am sure many of them do get hit by cars or motorbikes.  It is also common to see a dog, stretched out flat in the middle of the sidewalk with a flood of pedestrians spilling around it.  Regardless of how we might perceive the lives of these dogs, they do know how to endear themselves to us.  That is one skill dogs - even scabby strays - seem to have mastered.

About 30 seconds after I took this photo, this dog stopped, right in the middle of the street, and had a nice big poop.  I was too surprised to photograph that.

There are stray cats here, too, of course, but dogs seem to be more ubiquitous.  Most of the cats I have seen were near the temples.  I don't really have any good cat photos to share with you.  Instead, here are some photos of an opportunistic raven we saw, while eating spicy food last week at a little outdoor restaurant.