Pets Rule The World

 

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One day, my cousin, Mary K, who loves, loves animals told me that her dachshund, Maddie, died. She had been with Mary and Bob for a long, long time and as Mary herself said, “She ruled me.  She really did.”

I had a photograph of Maddie I’d taken during a visit and decided to digitally paint it and mount it on a 4in by 4 inch board and send it to her, using the same mixed media process I use with my other art work.

Pretty soon, she emailed me a snapshot of a friend’s beloved rescue dog, “Heaven”, who had just died.  She asked if I could give her some photo love, too.  So, I did.   I have no animals, not even a bird.

And, I loved doing it, too.

Really, really loved doing it.  And, then, I asked a few friends to send me regular snapshots of their pets and I did those, too. And, I still really, really loved doing it. And, my friends seemed to genuinely love them, too.

Years ago, as in over 60 years ago, we had a German Shepard named Toby. My brother and I loved him wildly, madly, truly. One day we came home from school and he didn’t run out to meet us. He was gone my mother said. Not sure what happened. Maybe hit by a car. Maybe a stranger stopped for him. We worried for days, weeks, months. Years later, as in maybe 25 years, my brother told me our Mother had to give him away because he was barking and causing trouble with the neighbors all day long while we were at school.

I don’t think he ever forgave her. I did forgive her but, in truth, maybe my heart never mended.

So, now, I discovered how to try by helping others mend their broken hearts with some of my photo love as well as to happily celebrate pets still ruling their owner’s world.

Here’s a short video of what I did with the snapshot of “Heaven”, the rescue dog.

I take commissions to do these portraits now and as you can see from the photo of “Obi” below, and “Heaven” above, the photo does not have to be a professional one, just a likeness, a posture, that you love of your pet. The boards that I mount them on are shown on the lower right. Sometimes, I paint them with encaustic paints and pigments after I do the digital portrait. It depends on each photo and animal what I end up doing.

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It takes me about two weeks to do them. Sending up to three snapshots to me via email, the largest resolution photo you have, is the preferred method.

I’ll contact you after my “virtual” store contacts me that you have checked out.  (All of this is a bit new to me so email me directly if there are any snafus in your process!)  Hopefully, all shall be handled in the “check out” and “shopping cart” part of the store with Paypal and/or all major credit cards.   I charge $125 dollars for the finished portrait.

After you have completed the process, we’ll have a conversation back and forth via email to make sure I have an understanding about your animal– the basics, of course, like the name of your pet, what breed or mix it is, and a little about personality and temperament, but, I am also interested in learning a bit about their story.  Because, as you can see, we all have stories.

Then, when I have done a few versions of the portraits, I’ll send you at least two, maybe more, choices to pick from for the final portrait.

Here are a closer look at some of the portraits I’ve done so far.  The link to my store is here.

 

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