Ominous: My Collage for LMAC #199
This week, the LMAC template struck a familiar note for me. I grew up in a rural area and this photo reminded me of those years. Here's the template for LMAC #199.
I went through my personal photos and found this image that I thought I could use in my collage.
The dog was named Boots. The cat under his leg was called Yellow Cat (not a very imaginative name!). I've written about Boots before on this platform. He was an amazing dog--part Great Dane and part St. Bernard. And he was extremely gentle, as you can see from the photo.
Boots did not come to a good end, but I won't talk about that here, because that's even more depressing than what I am about to describe.
Below you can see another picture of Boots with me and my younger sister. We were in the field next to my house when this was photo taken. The cat I'm holding is not Yellow Cat. I don't remember this one. We had a lot of animals, none that we actively sought, but once they came to the house, they received a kind welcome from my mother. Of course we, the children, loved them. All the animals were our friends, and the dogs were our protectors.
Those were lean years for my family. There wasn't enough food for us and the dogs. That didn't stop people from dropping them off at the house, though. At least two dogs (including Boots) came this way. Other dogs wandered onto the property. And others were puppies born to the strays. Eventually, we had so many dogs that these became a nuisance to neighbors.
My mother didn't have a solution for this dog surfeit. So a neighbor decided to 'help'. He poisoned our dogs.
We began to find their bodies around the property. Here and there a body would appear. They all came home to die.
My brother was responsible for the burials, but I did assist on one. The ground was frozen, so my brother came up with a solution. We took the dog up into the forest, to a swampy area. My brother knew about a boggy section that would pull things under. We put the dog in the bog and waited. Slowly, the body disappeared.
The dark figure in the picture represents the man (I'm pretty sure it was a man, but of course women can do such things also) who poisoned our dogs. It also represents the general aura of catastrophe that seemed to loom over us in those years.
My Collage
This week I used the template, my personal photo, images from Pixabay and LIL resources to make my picture.
LIL
Squirrel
@redheadpei
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/6711Kitten
@yaziris
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/7654Tree
@muelli
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/8112
Pixabay
Carrion crow flying
https://pixabay.com/photos/crow-raven-bird-bird-feathers-3340305/Turkey buzzards
https://pixabay.com/photos/turkey-vulture-turkey-buzzard-5968741/
Here is a process gif (I left out the missteps🙂)
In constructing the GIF, I used a Lunapic filter on one of the segments. Most of it was constructed with GIMP. The last effect, Old Photo, was a Gimp filter. Paint3d was used for extractions and Paint for sizing.
The carrion crow in the sky and turkey buzzards were an afterthought. Maybe they are overkill (bad choice of words) but the picture was bare without them.
Picture without the birds:
LIL is not only a valuable image resource for the Hive community, but is also a way for community members to participate in LMAC. Anyone on Hive can contribute to the library and everyone can borrow from it. Learn about the procedure here.
Every week we offer prizes to fifteen finalists in the contest, but it's not only the prizes people create for. I, for example don't compete, but spend hours giving vent to my imagination. Others in the community have developed the habit of 'speaking' through collage.
As @shaka has said many times, everyone is an artist. I may not be an artist in the technical sense, but LMAC allows me to nurture my own unique artistic voice.
Thank you for reading. Peace and health to all.
Sad reliving of memories you obviously don't enjoy thinking about, turned the pictures into a wonderful collage using template selected.
Makes me shudder to think how cruel people can be not thinking of others, we had a Great Dane/Rhodesian Ridgeback that too was a gentle giant, very protective!
@tipu curate 2
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 35/75) Liquid rewards.
Thank you for that sensitive comment. These are memories that don't get better with age. I don't nurse them, but they do inform my actions.
We who love dogs form a special club🌷The dogs don't need to do anything to make us love them, but some of them do a lot. This dog (according to my mother) actually saved my little sister's life.
Thanks for the generous Tipu⭐️
Dogs do tend to alert you to danger, each has a character of their own like children, all loved equally. Have a great day, hold onto fond memories always, even those that are hurtful.
You were really able to come up with great shots here I must confess
Original art work
Good luck for the nomination of your collage digital art project.
Thank you
Peace
Thank you, @oadissin. I don't compete in the contest because I am on the jury. Making the collages is always a relaxing experience for me. I think it's more relaxing because I don't compete🙂
The thin less human looking figure depicts perfectly the darkness in a cruel individual. I can see why you don’t want to revisit that terrible period where your dogs were poisoned.
Love how Boots and yellow cat snuggle up together in your creation.
Hope you are keeping well, A.G. We have lots of snow but spring in not too far away. 😊
He was the kindest dog. We used to try to ride him like a pony, and he just shrugged us off. I never heard him growl, as a warning or in any other way.
We are almost without snow. Had a little bit last week, but it melts rather quickly from the sidewalks. I hope you like the snow 😇. I am very much looking forward to spring.
I hope you are well, and those you also.🌷🌸
Boots seem to be a very lovely dog
I love all the pictures you have shared with us
They are really nice
This is pure beautiful artwork and I am so sure you must have really invested a lot of time in this
Marvelous art work. Totally mind blowing.
A sad story that you have cleverly managed to turn into art. For me, it's a way to soften a hard memory. Congratulations, dear @agmoore!
Thank you, @esthersanchez. You are right...this is a way of processing the past. When I was a child, we were not allowed to talk about the hard things that happened. As an adult, I claim the right, and there is great freedom in that.
I appreciate your kind comment.