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Last month I came across a gorgeous vintage tooled leather box, something that perhaps was a lady’s small suitcase in years gone by. I bought it as a tote for my paints – impractical, yes, to use such a beautiful box for schlepping my paints around in. But if I could repurpose it, then I could also justify the splurge.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I was cleaning the box out, and found a treasure tucked into one of the interior pockets. A vintage dog tag, oval in shape, with a tiny bulldog face engraved and ribbons undulating underneath her head. The ring on the tag reads “please return to,” and I’m guessing the ribbons were the space allocated for the owner’s name and address. But they were never filled.

I wonder who’s little dog this tag was meant for, and how it ended up in the bottom of my case. The tag is now tied to the handle of my paint box with a beautiful blue ribbon. Well, really, NOW it’s hanging from a piece of string on an old nail in my studio, but it’ll be returned to my box.

It seemed like the perfect tag to kick off my new project.

“Vintage Dog Tag I,” 4x8, dog tag still life painting in acrylic on canvasboard, $90.

Periodically I’ll share these still lives, and as with the dog-a-day paintings, they will go to the first buyer. Inquiries can always come to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com .

I’ve been thinking more about my request for tags from last night, and trying to figure out how I might be able to inventory and return them. If you are willing to include a self addressed stamped envelope, along with an identifying card that details your tags and what information is on them, and you are willing to allow me to retain the tags till the project is complete (which I have no idea about quite yet!), I’ll recruit my son to build me a database, and see to it that they are returned.

So now I’m really signing off, to work on a larger portrait (poor Shadow has been patiently staring at me all day from the wall here), and then get some dinner started.
Thanks again!
Enjoy your weekend,
Kim

Kimberly Kelly Santini
http://www.turtledovedesigns.com/
distinctive pet portraits
& 4-legged paintings

http://www.paintingadogaday.com/
come. sit. stay.
enjoy the art.

Founding member of the Canine Art Guild
http://www.canineartguild.com/
the gateway to canine art on the web

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