Monday Bunday

It'a hard to keep the place clean with four rabbits, but really I'd rather have rabbits than a spotless house. The Miele, which I appropriated from my parents has been the best vacuum I've ever had the pleasure of using and I've found "green" and reasonably price bags for it. All the rabbits except, strangely, Sydney are semi-terrified of it, Sydney has no fear of the vac.

Tyler has almost put the cord out of commission, but duct tape did done it's magic there. If I am away from the machine for even a second I retract the cord. As you know see Amelia likes it just fine if it's not making any noise. I contacted Miele saying I wanted to send them a picture of my rabbit (their contact system does not allow for attachments) with one of their vacs and was there an Email I could use for this, and they never got back to me. Just another weirdo......

HAPPY BUNDAY

Presenting

Bonding has been coming along in it's own way, one cannot expect the moods of four rabbits to take the straight and narrow. Be present, they advise, and be open to the possibilities. So often being present becomes being closed to options and outcomes other than the "goal". The following series of photos were taken all in one morning (9/16/10) and are shown in chronological order. Although there has been no grooming, except what appeared to be a single lick from Sydney to Harriet, they getting much more comfortable with each other and with sharing territory. I think Tyler would have groomed Harriet if his other GFs weren't there. When he caved in to Amelia it was when Sydney was not present. There have been no more fights, though I had to stop Amelia from charging at one point. She is pretty easy to read; she gets a bit stiff, her neck goes out a bit and her eyes narrow.

Dandelion Breakfast

Harriet presents to Sydney and visa versa.....

Harriet presents to Tyler as he hops in to re-chin everything in her zone,

which used to be his zone......

Amelia always wants somebun to groom her,

she tries Sydney, but with no luck...

Harriet presents to Amelia and is presented back...

Tyler beaming up....

2 Movies

This is an un-touched photo expressing the enigma that is Harriet or,

possibly, Harriet channeling a Francis Bacon painting.

Bonding has taken a predictable and rhythmic turn in hopes of instilling trust in all the rabbits. It is apparent that the other rabbits, especially Amelia, and I might add for good reason, don't seem to trust Harriet. They are just not sure when she will nip and when she will present for a kiss. Not knowing anything about Harriet's past is a handicap. What kind of animals, people, rabbits was she around? She was obviously around people and a lot, they appear to have taught her to beg for food. She is so used to getting food this way sometimes she doesn't realize it is right in front of her on the floor. I feel she wasn't around rabbits. Although she is attracted them she doesn't know how to maintain relationships. I hope I'm not anthropomorphizing too much here or indulging in revealing self parody.

Peek-a-boo, who am I?

She is very territorial and if I have her up front and I open the back for a communal feed she will first go back and chin a few corners before tucking into her basket. I tell her often that sharing doesn't mean loosing. Sometimes she won't come up front unless I reassure her. At first I would get on the floor with the rabbits, now I sit back, letting them interact without the enormous 5th (non)rabbit. I've also been ringing the tuning forks and am ready with a quick foot should intervention be called for. We've made two very primitive movies, not very exciting, using the newly acquired and already partially broken tripod. Just click on the title to see them.

DANDY PARTY PART ONE

DANDY PARTY PART TWO

Baby Porkchop

Baby Porkchop, king of the couch.

As you will recall I was commissioned to paint a posthumous portrait of one Baby Porkchop and it has been completed. Baby Porkchop, as you can well imagine is terribly missed by his mum, rabbit rescuer extraordinaire, Thea Smith. Baby was one of those big buns, 9 1/2 pounds of laid back bunitude, who knew who was the boss and it was him. Destructive and sweet as the day is long, he would follow is peeps around like a dog. One day Thea's FIL was sitting on Baby's favorite couch, the couch from which he would survey his domain, Baby hopped up next to Ed, then onto his lap and put his front paws on his chest, sniffed his glasses (what the heck are thesethings, dude?), licked him, then hopped down and way. As big as he was in so many ways, Baby's life was tragically short and Thea lost him too soon to a liver abnormality. He was her first rabbit and her first loss and now he's coming coming home again.

First a sketch....

Transfer sketch to good water color paper,

I favor Arches Cold Press 300 pound, I love the smell,

under paint with water color.

Add some colored pencil.

And more and more colored pencil until it is finished. Image size is 13 X 9 inches, this is not the photo of it, when I make a better one I'll put it in. Thea loves her portrait, she feels I've captured his spirit, his smile and a his hockey pants!, frankly it would be hard to miss the hockey pants. Bink, Baby, bink.

Rabbits At Work

Tyler Stamp

We have been very, very busy in the rabboratory. It had seemed for a long time that getting a custom stamp made was too expensive, too complicated and really not doable at all. And hosting a whole line of stamps was ridiculous and not to be thought of, ever......The advent and maturation of the internet has changed all that.

Sydney Stamp

In this day and age I can send a scan to a small family company and in a few days receive a rubber stamp made from the image I sent. In fact without even meeting these people I can send them an Email with my info and have them bill me for their services. It seems a little like magic.

Amelia Stamp

I love rubber stamps and have to control myself around them, indeed I once had a suitor try to win my favor by giving me a couple of rubber stamps; a hypodermic needle and a skeleton wearing a hat a la Jose Posada. I wish I could make lovely artworks with rubber stamps, I have seen some marvelous and truly magical works, but I can't and I accept that as totally OK.

Harriet Stamp

When I send out a print to it's new home I put many, many armadillos on the package. Some of you have even seem my folksy handiwork. It's fun for me and it's fun for the people who work at the post office that I go to. There are two post offices in town. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I go to the one that is a little farther away and that I have to drive to, but I do make sure I have other things to do in the area or it is on the way to something else. I don't like to go to the one downtown because there are sometimes unwell people with unidentified and contagious diseases. The last time I went there the guy in front of me had a coughing fit all over the counter, I tried so hard not to breathe or touch the counter. I think because of this kind of event and others even less savory, the clerks, though they surely fulfill the requirements of their respective job descriptions, are understandably cranky.

Miss Eve Stamp

At the other post office all the clerks are very, very friendly. One guy is almost absurdly happy to help everybody, he always ends the transactions by saying "That was really fun, let's do it again!". And he seems to mean it and know that he is over top at the same time. It is quite fascinating. At this post office all the clerks are endlessly amused by the armadillos, one asked a co-worker if it cost more to send packages with armadillos, another noticed I'd added word balloons and started reading them aloud.

Bunny Head Stamp

In the back of your mind you may be wondering what it is with armadillos and me, and wouldn't it make more sense if I had a rabbit stamp. You would be right, of course, you so often are. I have looked for rabbit stamps and never found the right one. So I've had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about that. One day, on Facebook, I'd done a rabbit drawing for something and posted it and Friend of Animals wrote something about wanting a stamp of it. This added another bee to the first bee in my bonnet as regards rabbit stamps. Lest I go crazy from the buzzing I just went ahead and did stamps and you can visit my Etsy (I love Etsy BTW) shop by clicking HERE. Be sure to click on each one and read the descriptions, they are a little bit fun, though not as fun as Mr. Fun from the other post office.

Tiger Stamp

The thing that makes my stamps kind of special is that each design started out as a woodblock print so it really looks like a print, not like a photo or a line drawing. I find prints special, they are an interaction between the artist, the carving tool, the wood, the ink, the paper and day itself. It's a group effort. It certainly is not always easy but it seems that it is through limitations that a uniqueness is achieved. I have some more designs in the works and am going to have T Shirts for buying as well......