Life-Changing Pet Portraits

Today I share with you a few tenants try to abide when it comes to drawing the line between me and my love of felines:

• Not displaying cats photos  in my home – to be fair I don’t have framed pictures of humans either so I’m equal opportunity
• Not talking to my cats in a baby voice in front of other people – though I actually told a date recently that he was being such a “good boy”  (oops!)
• Not wearing of cat-themed clothing/accessories – just not my thing
• Not sacrificing my design aesthetic for my cats – I’d like to think I can have the best of both worlds

Well thanks to Cindy Jerrell’s Etsy store Hot Dog Digital, I’ve rescinded my moratorium on pet photography. Remember those old-timey sepia photographs you have taken at places like Disneyland where you get dressed up as a saloon girl or cowboy? Well Cindy does the same for your pet (s).

Cindy has created custom portraits of all sorts of animals from the expected (dogs and cats) to the unusual (goats and gerbils!).  Each custom portrait takes anywhere from 2-5 hours of work for completion.

 The descriptions of pet personalities parents give her often inform her pieces. “One of my very favorites [description]” recounts Cindy is “ ‘my cat is trying to kill me so she can have my husband to herself’ ”  Wonder if  kitty was holding a cleaver in her picture!  It turns out that little gerbil above (Herman) is an “award-winning” gerbil (can’t you just envision that competition!).

A self-professed animal lover Cindy resides with sixteen goldfish, nine cats, three dogs, three duck, one craw-dad and one (clearly tolerant) husband. She’s been “a photographer/graphic designer for 20 years, and Photoshop user oh, er – I mean costume maker, for about 14 years.” I knew I had to get my boys “done.”

Not only is Cindy an amazing artist (check out her personal website) but she and her husband go to the animal shelters once a week to take photos of adoptable animals for the newspaper. Sometimes, after they’ve been adopted she uses their photos in her work.

Don’t you think Kip looks a little like Jude Law? Petie makes a great fat-cat banker. I plan on having them framed and added to my work-in-progress “vegan” trophy wall.

I  guess there’s always a way to incorporate your pets into your home no matter what your style. And never say never! Do you have framed photos of your cats in your home? If so where do you keep them. If not, how come?