What began as a naive painting of my first adopted dog , Hugo, eventually turned into a career of painting and documenting hundreds of dogs.

It was the infancy of the internet, and I had learned about a new site called “eBay”. On a whim, I listed a painting. My painting sold and soon people started contacting me to paint their dog.

Outside of school or camp, I never had an art lesson. Figuring out how to hold a paint brush and actually get paint onto the canvas was challenging.

Through thousands of hours of staring at dog photos and painting, my own style emerged. I began to remove the dogs from their context. My portraits became intentionally intimately minimal. I wanted the viewer to hold eye contact with the dog.

It was not enough to only capture a likeness. I was interpreting each dog in paint. Constructing a character narrative with each brushstroke. Influenced by my love of painter Alice Neel’s human portraits, I wanted my paintings to become a combination of realism and expressionism. I decide what to include and what to exclude. My work has been described as an ethereal version of reality, the painting of the soul, “ “ an amalgamation of their personality “

Who is this dog ,why are their humans having me paint their portrait or why am I drawn to paint this particular dog. Most of the dogs I paint are rescued dogs. Dogs who found themselves homeless at the shelter, often because of their medical needs and/ or advanced age. I am the painter of their face and the story teller of their life. My portraits are “ a place where the memories can live “

Sharing our lives with dogs changes us. I believe for the better. I see how you saved them and how they saved you. I want to share portraits and stories of these remarkable dogs, who were overlooked, who without saying a word , teach and inspire us to be more human.

My portraits have been featured in Design Sponge, Domino, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, 1000 Dog Portraits Book, Huff Post and Design Milk Pets,