Mary-Anna Musk Ox: Portrait Complete

Mary-Anna Musk Ox will sit for a formal, digital portrait when I return from my Pass the Baton trip to Syracuse and Tulsa. Once digitized, she will appear on the nanoscapes website as the newest SMALL FRIEND. She will then return to Alaska, taking the antique quilt with her.

Mary-Anna will represent the letter "M" in the Small Friends Alphabet.

Mary-Anna Musk Ox (The New Small Friend): A Portrait in Progress

Mary-Anna Musk Ox discovered an antique quilt in my studio and demanded to pose in front of it.  Although she is technically a "Small Friend," when a 600-pound Prima Donna Bovidae Caprina Ovibos  makes a request, it is my policy to accede to the demand.

In the Small Friends Alphabet, Mary-Anna will represent the letter "M."

Marya-Anna Musk Ox - a new Small Friend

I encountered a live Musk Ox a The Alaska Zoo in Anchorage in 2003, the year that the Iditerod started in Fairbanks because there was no snow in Anchorage. It was a hulking, sulking animal with matted hair and the worst animal odor I have ever encountered. Its hair is a kind of wool called qiviut which is prized by weavers and knitters, and can cost $80 an ounce. Despite the odor, the Musk Ox was a good subject to sketch, because it never moved.

You can imagine my surprise to meet Mary-Anna Musk Ox in my studio.  Although she weighs several hundred pounds, she looks terrific and smells quite wonderful.  Although she lives in the mountains outside of Anchorage during the winter, she moves to the city each summer to be near her favorite hair salon, whose staff takes a Mary-Anna Marathon Weekend to give her a color-cut-and-perm. 

She will be around for two more days while I put the finishing touches on her portrait.  Mary-Anna will represent the letter "M" in the Small Friends Alphabet.