Whimsey
“Why Pet Portraits Cy?…
… I know how much you love animals but is this a good choice as a subject to spend all of your time and talent on? Can you make a living Drawing and Painting pets and animals? Art is a tough gig to make money at.” – Myself to myself. Spoken many years ago, and continuing to this day.
My answer to myself received in an email earlier today;
Cy,
“I worked from home today so I wouldn’t miss the delivery of Whimsey’s portrait. I had no idea. I loved the photo of the Portrait, but had absolutely no idea of what it would look like in person so to speak. My God, Cy, it looks exactly like my darling basking in the sun and it is in three dimensions! I can count the number of eye lashes as well as the number of whiskers. How can I thank you? I would have been happy to pay you twice what you charged me to have my boy given back to me like this! I feel like I could just reach out and touch him and he’d begin to purr. I swear that Whimsey must have sitting on your shoulder when you painted this. My baby has finally come home!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!”
And the questioning of my Art career and subject matter choice is answered.
This Blog post, however, is NOT about me or how good or average of a painter I am. This Blog post, and actually my whole career, is about animals like Whimsey, pictured above, and the people that love and care for them like Elizabeth, who in her last, Hardest, and possibly greatest act of love for Whimsey had to release him from his suffering and the body that had finally failed him.
This is what it all means to me;
My Artist statement reads like this:
My motivation for creating and selling art is first to share my interest and enjoyment for the images that I paint, Secondly, to honor my subject matter. And finally when I am gone, I want to leave behind a body of work that will continue to accomplish the first two objectives.
I plan to help people and animals with my gift. I want to make people happy, give them a reason to smile, or be moved, and in some cases also to help heal and gain some closure from the loss of a pet. The second part is as it states, I am honoring the animals that I portray. In my mind I am giving each animal I Paint or Draw, whether they are with us still or not, a small piece of immortality. People will gaze upon them long after they are gone, and can still enjoy their beauty and personality. And finally I find peace in knowing that all of these positives will continue far into the future long after I myself am gone.
Thank you for reading this Blog post, and please have fun with your animals. Remember you are probably the main thing that makes them happy!
Cy
