Who's a Good Dog!

Cool Canine Characters on Canvas

Custom Portraits Painted from Your Photos

I am currently accepting a small number of commissions.

Contact: ramey2001@aol.com

Rocky and Zelda

acrylic on canvas

Wallace

acrylic on canvas

Molly and Bailey

acrylic on canvas

And One Bad Bird

Witch Boy and Midnight

Illustration from "The Witches of Moonlight Ridge"

colored pencil on art paper

Celebrating National Poetry Month

Thanks to Barry Marks for allowing me to post this amazing poem. One of my favorites.

I Stop to Ponder the Stentorian Colors of the Day

by Barry Marks

The railing down from the deck

to the garbage cans was wobbly and

since you left I’ve certainly had

time on my hands,

so I unretired my rusty box saw,

found an old two-by-four

and some three penny nails,

and got to work.

A dog was barking, yelling his name

at the dog next door

Big Dog Who Swims! Big Dog Who Swims!

To which his neighbor barked back,

Dog Who Hates Cats! and

some nearby mutt yapped

Mama’s Favorite! Mama’s Favorite!

A cardinal was shouting

Beauty! A mockingbird said

the same, of course.

A chameleon shot out of the hedge,

stopped by my foot, and turning from green

to almost-brown, sneered

You can’t see me then skittered off.

The sky was whispering until

I looked up and it screamed,

Forever

to which the grass responded,

Joy is fragile!

And the saw

sang in my hands

and the wood?

Come on, now. An old two-by-four

with a bent nail in its heart?

Everyone knows dead wood

has nothing to say.

Elvis Presley's Birthday

Today, January 8th, is Elvis Presley's birthday, and in honor of the King of Rock and Roll, I felt I should blog!

Blogging has been on hold for the last few weeks, due to a sudden tsunami of activities and obligations which left me and all constituent possums virtually flooded with frantic scurrying and hurrying. Now that the hub-bub has slacked off to some degree, I look forward to getting back to at least the possibility of calmer and more serene (serener) day-to-day business.

Guess what? I'm not sure if the problem is with Blogger, my computer, or WHAT, but I can't get any photos to download. When I click on the Insert Image icon, it should go to Browse so I could choose a picture, but that doesn't happen. Nothing happens. No pictures of Elvis, no pictures of his little birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi! Nothing!

So, I'll just say, once again,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIS!

I'll come back to this later.

How very interesting. I've found that the computer will allow me to add pictures that are from my blog, from previous posts, but it still won't let me upload new pictures from any place else. So, here are some photos of friends and family who are celebrating the King's birthday in their own way.

This is Musey, celebrating Elvis's birthday in a cardboard box.

This is Gretchen the Wonder Dog, waiting for birthday cake, and humming

You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog

This is a likeness of Chicken Little, the meanest chicken who ever walked the earth,

of whom my sister and I were the unfortunate care-takers.

Here are two well-wishers, celebrating the day.

Here's Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. They're all celebrating Elvis's birthday!

Steve McQueen

By the '70s, he was the highest paid actor in the world.

Here, he was just somebody's best friend.

High Time: Dig This

Yes, I believe it is high time to do some explaining about the picture of me. What I'm holding is a shovel. This picture was taken on my birthday, and the shovel was a birthday present from my daughter, India. If you look closely, you can see the aforementioned Gretchen the Snorticuss waiting patiently behind me. She perceives that some digging may be afoot, so to speak. In her case, it's afoot. In my case, it's ashovel.

As long as we're on the subject of shovels and feet, we may as well talk about Ireland. It has come to my attention that if you go to a well known website where we all go to avail ourselves of random information, you can see the question; Explain the expression "Digs with the other foot." The big surprise is, nobody has answered that question. Well, let me tell you, it has to do with the difference in the shovels used by Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. Historically, the Irish Catholics used shovels with long, straight handles with no horizontal grip at the top. If you try to dig with one of these, which I have often done, you'll find that to get a better dig, one must push the shovel with one's foot. And if you're right handed, the foot that seems most logical will be the left foot. However, the Protestants typically used a shorter handled shovel, with the horizontal grip at the top. Just look, my thoughtful and non-sectarian daughter has given me the perfect example, which I proudly display in the picture. With this shovel in hand, one is more likely to push with the right foot. It just works better that way.

I learned all this from Desmond Regan, a fine Irish Catholic fellow, when I was a youngun. Desmond was not only a fine fellow, but a Catholic priest as well. My daddy, Gordy, who was not a Catholic, nonetheless built the little brick Catholic church that stands across the street from the elementary school I attended. But that's a story for another day

Happy Digging!

Another Day, Another Dollar

So here we are, 2009! The best thing so far is, we have a new Pres!
What else? It feels like a new lease on life.

Meanwhile, Gretchen the dog, has a new leash on life. She's at the vet, getting a bath!

I'm contemplating transforming myself into Buddy Holly. We'll see how it goes. Actually, I won't really transform myself into B.H., I just plan to sing a Buddy Holly song in public, with accomplices. More about that later.

Things to Watch For Here at The Painted Possum !

Soon I'll be posting examples of portraits and other artwork I have recently completed, poems, short stories and highly entertaining illogical thoughts, and, oh yes, snapshots of me and my musical group The Crazy Little Mamas performing a Buddy Holly song ... in public!