by Jennie Lloyd
Four winters ago, Rosemary Daugherty met Noel, her 85-pound English bulldog, and was immediately smitten.
He is fawn-colored with tan spots and what Rosemary calls “his constellation ears.” His soft cowlike little earflaps are dotted with chocolate brown spots. As she pats his broad chest, she says, “This is probably my favorite thing about him.”
Daugherty is a bulldog fan. “I’m just addicted to the breed. It’s not just how they look, it’s their personalities. Look at him,” she points to Noel as he snuffles through some artworks. “He’s so smart, he’s emotionally smart. There’s just nothing like a bulldog. They know how to get what they want, and that’s kind of endearing. They think for themselves and are extra snuggly and cuddly too.”
Daugherty adds, “He’s sort of a superstar, and he just knows it. He’s bossy and proud, and he likes to show off.”
Impossible To Ignore
Everywhere the adorable pair goes, people stop them to interact with Noel. He makes it impossible to ignore him, whether he and Daugherty are on their little walks to stretch Noel’s wide-set legs outside their Tulsa Arts District apartment, hanging at Guthrie Green, or on weekend adventures to the family cabin near Grand Lake.
Noel makes friends everywhere they go, with his friendly personality and expressive bulldog vocabulary filled with loud harrumphing, excitable grunting, and a piggy purr of low-key relaxation. His charming snuffling vocabulary is all part of how bulldogs communicate with us.
Noel walks around in Daugherty’s midtown art studio, where he investigates her art collection and her works in progress. “Welcome to my mess,” she says, gesturing around the room. Messy, sure, but in the most whimsical way.
In every direction are canvases filled with eye-popping, brightly colored, detailed odes to the nostalgia of Daugherty’s childhood in Tulsa. Near the door, a stack of paint-bynumbers kits is ready to mail. They feature luscious renditions of the Blue Whale in Catoosa, the Golden Driller, the Desert Hills Motel, and the Tulsa State Fair’s Ferris wheel against a late summer sunset.
Lined against another wall is Daugherty’s older art, which is more focused on lighthearted, feminine things. There’s an under-the-sea babe in a vintage glass window with a Diet Coke in hand.
“With my art, I’m sort of a storyteller. I paint from my life and the nostalgia too — especially lately,” she says. Before COVID, she was “teaching art and having classes in my studio, painting nights with ladies, but [since the pandemic] I had to shut it down. It just died.”
So Daugherty began to create painting kits for people to do at home.
“They are based on my nostalgia, and they’re based on memories and childhood and warmth and Route 66 and things that I grew up with. So I put that into my kits for people to take home. And they just took off,” she says.
She wanted to create a paint-by-numbers kit that wasn’t cheesy. “And hopefully, people take it home, and it brings back warm memories of places they loved. It’s such a good gift,” she says.
More Than Party Tricks
With a lovable snort, Noel prances around a corner, ready to show off his party trick. Time to focus on me, he says.
“Left paw?” Daugherty prompts him. He hands over his left paw like a heavyweight low five. “Right paw?” He sticks out his right paw like a doggy handshake. “Sometimes it’s more like a fist bump,” she laughs.
Noel smiles his megawatt, toothy smile as he shows off his moves.
“Did you know that you’re the wind beneath my wings?” She asks him. “I think he knows,” she says.
Most weekends since the pandemic
began, Daugherty has taken Noel to their lake cabin for rest and relaxation. “He loves the country,” she says. “He likes to sit out on the deck and sunbathe. He has a kiddie pool. Out there in the country, Noel is how I meet all my friends. He’s made so many friends, thanks to visiting neighbors and getting treats from people.”
Getting away is the “only time I really get to relax,” Daugherty says. “Going out to the country has been our safe haven during COVID. I work long days, but when we’re out in the country, we can just chill and hang out. On our way home, we’ll stop at roadside monuments and slow down.”
As Noel snarfs up to Daugherty for a little bulldog kiss, she says, “This guy keeps me balanced.”
With his undeniable charisma, Noel keeps Daugherty from burying herself in studio work. “I have to stop and go home and cook him dinner, and I have to play with him before I go to work. He forces me to stop and smell the roses.”
To find more information about Daugherty’s art and painting kits, check out moonlightartfactory.com.
