Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2010SYR05
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Ears Flapping in Wind
poster information
Description
Ears flapping in wind
trying to keep the dog's pace
walking me instead
I saw the Poster Project advertised, and I thought it would be something creative, and I decided to try it out. I had written a few poems before—actually, one is not a good story. Working at a retail store about 12 years ago, I was robbed at closing time. A couple of days later, I just sat down and wrote a poem about it. I guess it was therapeutic.
The haiku was about a better experience. This past year, I did some pet sitting and dog walking. I noticed that when you click the leash on a dog's collar, they're raring to go and take right off. One dog in particular was around 11 years old. She just kept trotting along and didn't stop. Even though I didn't know the way, she did. She was on a mission.
I am a dog lover. I have a shih tzu at home named Buster who has been the subject of many of my paintings. In high school, I earned money by painting dog portraits, so when I read this haiku, it seemed like the perfect fit for me.
The dog depicted differs from a typical dog portrait because instead of painting a real dog, I invented a breed of my own. Since the haiku begins with “Ears flapping in wind,” I had to choose a dog with floppy ears. I searched for pictures of basset hounds, but it needed to be a big dog in order to walk its owner. The final creation is a cross between a basset hound and a Great Dane. I chose a small girl as the dog walker to emphasize the humor of the haiku.