Everybody's A Critic

I may or may not have mentioned this before, but my dog has emotional issues.  We're not sure of the hows and whys of it all, but during the first two months that we had him he destroyed our apartment when left alone.  We tried everything, crates, training and finally medication.  The medication worked.  So well in fact, that after about  a year, we decided he didn't need it anymore.  We were wrong.

I started this needlepoint in March 2009.  It was going to be an anniversary present for my friend.  Because it was a gift, I wanted it to be impressive.  Plus I was playing around with size - it measures 11"x16" from completed edge to edge.  By mid-February 2010, after pausing this project to complete a few smaller ones, it was nearing completion.  I was beginning to feel good about it. We went out to dinner, celebrating a friend's birthday.  While we out Ollie added his own artistic interpretation.

At first I was completely stunned, my husband was livid.  I had thoughts of salvage and repair, but decided to put it away for a while.  Perhaps some time off would give me new perspective.  Coming back to it now, I see elements that I like, but as a whole I don't think it represents my best work.  It's darker than it should be and I'm not crazy about the skin tones.  So perhaps Ollie prevented me from completing sub-par work.  Or perhaps I'm just justifying his actions.  Either way, what's done is done.  If I decide to try this image again, I know what I would do differently.  

And Ollie is back on his meds, and hasn't had an incident since. 

Luckily, I scanned my work while in progress, you can see the destroyed segment here.