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Search and Rescue

5/18/2012

K-9 Fausto and his handler, Bob Massey have been part of the Ventura County K-9 Search and Rescue Team since 2003. His job with the Sheriff’s Department is to help locate missing individuals. From an object with the person’s scent, he trails for many miles over a multitude of surfaces long after the subject has left the scene. I met the team at Dining With Dogs, a 2011 fundraising event, for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and Ventura County Search and Rescue. I was captured by the handsomeness of his face, Fausto’s that is. He attended the opening of my show and seemed pleased with the likeness. Though he did think I could have added a few more folds.

Check out photos from the 2012 Dining With Dogs

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.396186280401927.92296.100000316744667&&l=c09f3c43ce

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THE ARTIST YOUR PET WOULD CHOOSE?

5/8/2012

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I've noticed that my paintings have caught the attention of the animals themselves. Gracie, a Great Dane Service dog, owned by Kristine Dziak of Gracie's Closet and Gallery 28 in Oxnard, has been known to sit in front of her painting staring at her image.

At the First Anniversary event at The Barkley Pet Hotel and Day Spa, two Saint Bernards made a beeline for my painting of the same breed. I think they recognize themselves. It’s quite flattering!

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CHANNELING MY INNER DOG

3/31/2012

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The Process of a Portrait
Sometimes I do commissions for animals who are no longer alive. I work from the owner’s story. I try to express the bond between the human and their pet. On a particular commission for a much-loved dog who had died a few months earlier, I worked from photographs, but the accuracy I was able to attain came from listening to the owner describe Lady Bear – her dignity and grace, the heart-shaped marking on her head. Her human loved her, and in a small way, I was able to bring her back to him. Painting her was very emotional for me. In the end I felt as if I knew her.

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Search and Rescue

THE ARTIST YOUR PET WOULD CHOOSE?

CHANNELING MY INNER DOG

Mary-Jo

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