All decked out... and no where to go

Oh, I've totally screwed myself.

I should have known better!

I'm down to the last stages of making this bed, and I've done the one thing that I should have avoided. Sometimes when you over-think something, all you do is confuse the hell out of the situation.

In keeping with the "sleeping dogs" theme, I decided to carve the headboard. Well, at least my choice as of this morning. Who knows what I will come up with in the next two hours.

One of my all time favorite woodworkers is Judy Kensley McKie, who includes animal imagery and carving on most of her furniture. Like these panels.

Or this table.

Or this bench.

Judy's son was murdered many years ago, and I've always had a soft spot for her after that. Yes - art is therapeutic, but I'm not sure I could pick up a chisel after that. You can read about her work with The Garden of Peace Project here, it is a memorial project for victims of homicide.

Another favorite artist of mine is Mark Del Guidice, who includes a gorgeous combination of color and carving in his work. (I swear, some day - I will own one of Mark's pieces - and that is saying something!)

With dog imagery in mind, I started playing around with some petroglyph artwork. I love that whole tribal imagery. One dog is good,

more dogs = better?

Right?

Here is where the insanity started to creep in - I was playing on the computer, and Stella started pawing at my leg, to play with her. It dawned on me that my subject matter was sitting just a few feet away - why couldn't I use her for a bit of inspiration? So I started snapping pictures - and altering them on photoshop. I went from this

to this

to this.

And now I have (literally) around 85 different versions of artwork to consider before I even lift up a single chisel to start carving. See what I mean about screwing myself?

Oh hell, I turned my attention to something I could accomplish - and cut the decking for the bed. These sheets of MDF weigh almost as much as I do, so moving them through the panel saw takes every bit of my energy.

The dust is awful!

Get some up your nose and you're screwed.

But at least the bed is taking shape.

I applied another coat of oil to everything, and now it's up to me - start carving, or get off the pot.

Oh wait - I have to make some decisions first!