Thirty Dogs in Thirty Days

I began a daily painting practice in 2009 as a method of maintaining the importance of visual arts in my life.  I had just had my son (March 2009) and met Clair Hartmann on a roadtrip to Willmington, NC with my parents and three month old son.  She had completed a series of "Daily Dog" paintings, doing a dog a day for 100 days.  That sounded like a great plan to me, until I returned to my teaching job and realized 100 days is longer than three months, so I set my goal as 30 dogs in 30 days and did my first series in 2010.  The wonderful result has been I am deeply invested in my art practice and I have developed a strong on-line following for these series.  They have become Events, and I continue to be amazed at the collaborative practice between my patrons and me.

In 2010 I set about painting my thirty dogs, sending out e-mails and asking for people to send me their dogs.  The result has been wonderfully overwhelming, with nearly every painting selling every year!  It has gotten so good that now I select a pet-related charity for each project and I donate a percentage of all profits.

Thirty Cats in Thirty Days

Really, my first loves were cats. Click on the green links to the right to see the Cats of 2013!

I was not a terribly shy child, but I still had some reticence around other kids. I didn’t always fit in or understand what their games were about and often found myself floundering on the edges as I had yet again performed some embarrassing action, the significance of which I was still socially unaware.

Into this, came the two stray cats who moved into our garage, Stars, the black and white tom, and Stripes, the orange tabby pregnant with kittens. At this point, my world became centered around a straw filled cardboard box in our large cement floored comfortably dark and cool garage for the entire summer.

Cats and kittens can be totally loving and snuggly and almost dog-like in their affections, but what attracted me at the time was the necessity to earn their love and trust. I felt that dogs would like nearly everyone but cats were particular. This appealed greatly to my adolescent need to feel sought out, special.