I enjoy creating art that explores the lives and characters of animals in situations that are often realistic, and, at times, imagined or allegorical. I fell in love with the joyous expression of this pup in a reference photo. The picture was otherwise uninspiring, with one paw cropped off the pup, lying against a plain white blanket. I decided to change the blanket to provide a colorful striped background and lift the dog up to show his entire gesture. Engineering the stripes and some of the blanket folds out of my head, expressing the cute fuzziness of the dog, and capturing the charm of his expression were fun challenges in creating this work.