Pups in the Park: Seattle Long Sleeve Tee

Aside from dogs, what inspired your illustration?

• With so many years spent behind the bar of a coffee shop, I’ve met a lot of dogs with a lot of different personalities—some that would bound towards me wagging, others that would take their cautious time before saying hello and some that were perfectly content to stand alone and stare off elsewhere. I think the same goes for dogs when they get to the park, so I wanted to try to show them having a good time in whichever way they chose—whether they wanted to chase a buddy, roll around alone or stare off into the distance. Dogs enjoying themselves is really one of the sweetest, most wholesome scenes, no matter how they do it.
  

Tell us about your dog and 1 quirky thing you love about them!

• My dog growing up was an Australian Shepherd named Joe. He was incredibly sweet and snuggly, and like a lot of other energetic herding dogs—unruly at times. The very first time he saw a deer, he lost his mind and went sprinting into the woods before he finally gave up and retreated. My family would often go down to the Oregon Coast so I got to watch him as a happy young dog go absolutely wild on the windy beach, sprinting and bounding around. Those memories helped inspire the happy dogs in the Gasworks Park illustration too. In his later years, he had drastically slowed down, but when we went back to the beach he’d still manage to get a very brief puppy-like jump and even briefer sprint before he was clearly winded.