a border collie's repose: meet nicole strasburg

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Athena is a Border Collie.  She's 13 here, but like her goddess namesake, even while resting she knows the value of consciousness and wisdom, and keeps an eye on the world before her.  In this etching, Santa Barbara artist (and Athena's mom) Nicole Strasburg keeps the worldview infinite by keeping the image simple:  Athena seated in the shadow of her specific monitoring spot, gazing forward into a day that could hold anything.

In a very recently completed tiny gouache painting, seen below, of her "two muses," Molly (red/white) and Skye (black/white), you can see even more of what Nicole means when she writes on her website:

"My process comes from internal urgings and emotional influences rather than intellectual ones. The paintings are records of connections and the allure of knowing a place intimately. They show understanding of location and environment. I compose using series of photographs taken while out on hikes or long walks. The goal is simplicity, editing out all but the basic design structure."

copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Here's a link to Border Collie Repose 2 at Nicole Strasburg's Etsy shop.
Her blog, Pentimento, full of peeks at works in beautiful creation, is here.
A detailed page with many images is over at her dealers Sullivan Goss.  Also Susan Street Fine Art.