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Description
My Christmas gift for my mother this year, of Dexter, who passed away about a year ago. I wanted to see if I could do a really nice painting of him using photo reference. While sometimes I got lost in the details and bothered by things not doing what they were supposed to, sometimes I would stop and realize, "Holy crap, it's Dexter." Sometimes it made me cry; I think one will always miss the first guardian of their heart.
My mother thinks Dexter was one of those once-in-a-lifetime dogs, the sort that one will never encounter again. I don't know if I want to believe that, because Piker is his own dog, very different from Dexter, and I'm glad for that, because I wouldn't want him to spend his life in the shadow of a legend. Dexter gifted me with a lifelong love for dogs, especially Rottweilers, and even though dogs teach us tragedy, they also teach us to enjoy what we have. I will always see Dexter in the dogs in my life, and will always look forward to building new relationships after the old ones run their course.
Dexter was named by my mother out of a baby book, with the rather bland definition of "with dexterity; one who is skilled". More accurately, Dexter means "right-handed", but in Latin "dexi" (our household nickname for him was spelled Dexie) means "to worship"; a direct reference to the concept of the right hand of God. The truest glimpses of the divine are in animals, and since Dexter has passed on his name has taken a whole different meaning for me.

Description
My Christmas gift for my mother this year, of Dexter, who passed away about a year ago. I wanted to see if I could do a really nice painting of him using photo reference. While sometimes I got lost in the details and bothered by things not doing what they were supposed to, sometimes I would stop and realize, "Holy crap, it's Dexter." Sometimes it made me cry; I think one will always miss the first guardian of their heart.
My mother thinks Dexter was one of those once-in-a-lifetime dogs, the sort that one will never encounter again. I don't know if I want to believe that, because Piker is his own dog, very different from Dexter, and I'm glad for that, because I wouldn't want him to spend his life in the shadow of a legend. Dexter gifted me with a lifelong love for dogs, especially Rottweilers, and even though dogs teach us tragedy, they also teach us to enjoy what we have. I will always see Dexter in the dogs in my life, and will always look forward to building new relationships after the old ones run their course.
Dexter was named by my mother out of a baby book, with the rather bland definition of "with dexterity; one who is skilled". More accurately, Dexter means "right-handed", but in Latin "dexi" (our household nickname for him was spelled Dexie) means "to worship"; a direct reference to the concept of the right hand of God. The truest glimpses of the divine are in animals, and since Dexter has passed on his name has taken a whole different meaning for me.