Dixie was a wonderful german shepherd. She belonged to one of my childhood friends in the 1970's. Well trained, she would never venture out of her yard even with the long spanning fence gate open a good part of the day. The painting's viewpoint is from the passageway connecting my third floor back porch to the adjoining three story shed structure back in the 1970's. I would stop somewhere along the passageway and call out to Dixie and she would look up at me. Originally, this painting was part of a larger unfinished surrealist work I did in the mid 1990's. I decided to keep Dixie and discard the rest of that surrealist work. This is why "Dixie" is only 3 3/4" x 5 1/2". I am still wondering how I got so much detail into such a small painting.