18.8.06

Ch-ch-ch-changes

One thing you need to know about living with creative folk is their incessant need for exploration and the consequent change that it brings. I can relate-its an extension of a curious nature, and I certainly know all about that. When pack leader decided to create the Manhattan Chien website he encountered a new medium-HTML, as fascinating as a shadowy ball shaped object trapped under a chest of drawers. "Very curious, this code thingymajig", I could hear him mutter to himself late into the night. Many hundred hours of crude experimentation later, we have here ladies and Gentleman, the new Manhattan Chien site.

Being the closest living creature to PL, and privvy to all that goes on here let me sketch in the creative backstory to this endeavour. Buried under the scrawls and cut and paste experiments with code, lies an older canvas -that of the blogger template formerly known as scribe. The body of the scribe template, like a page from an old paperback novel triggered the creative process. He liked the visual theme of paper -he had been fascinated by the "papers" that I arrived with, my pedigree, veterinary reports and shipping documents all fascinated him with their official stamps and signatures. I actually have a folder of my own marked "Etienne /Documents" now expanded to include paperwork for a New york license, invoices for veterinary checkups and Letters of testimony that I have been neutered and vaccinated aginst rabies. Other pieces of ephemera duly saved include the labels that were stickered onto my original travel crate and our entry ticket to the Martha Stewart show. The paper theme continues with the artwork here that references old posters and postcards on faded and stained vintage paperstock, screenprints and watercolors on cold pressed art papers. C'est Voila- a portfolio of loose papers and documents filled with artwork, text and notes scribbled into the margins.

Its not just about looking pretty, and I know even more about that, the shift to blogger software also makes a subtantive change -its going to be more dynamic, more regularly updated. The stage is set, there's quite simply going to be a lot more of me, more regularly and in more detail. Am I exhausted by the prospect of it all? Not really, you see my job description is Companion and Muse. There is no heavy lifting, no code writing, no nothing, just being. Reclining adorably on my day bed may elicit an impromptu photo shoot, a bored scratch could trigger intensive research into holistic methods of flea prevention. Change is good, No?