Roman the Wolf-Dog

Roman

10" X 8" pen and ink

2009

Brenda commissioned this portrait for Gary. I’ll let her tell Roman’s story:

Roman is 85% gray wolf and the rest husky. He and Gary have been inseparable since Gary got him as a puppy. Roman used to go everywhere that Gary did.

Roman & Gary

Roman was an incredible athlete [in his prime] and is well known on Deer Isle for both his strength and friendly, kind, but aloof nature. He has always been liked by other dogs, loves parties (cheeseburgers!), is an escape artist (has been in the Blue Hill Hospital, TradeWinds, Monroe Saltworks...), and is just generally a really good soul.

What has always amazed me about Roman is how he could walk down a 12' vertical cliff and then get a running start and run back up it - seemingly effortlessly. It just seemed like he was going to fall on his head going down but apparently it wasn't a problem for him. Others talk about how effortlessly Roman could jump up onto something  "like he just levitated himself up there."

Roman is now almost 15 years old. He can't walk any longer but wants to go on walks (he has an incredible spirit) so we take him in the wagon down to the water. We must be an interesting sight but Roman is so happy to be going.

I used two photographs of Roman for this drawing, one for his head and another for Sand Beach, his favorite spot, in the background. I think the combination has an epic quality. Roman certainly lends himself to an heroic tradition.