Love and Loss and Giving Back

May 20, 2020

"I love cats because I enjoy my home; little by little, they become its visible soul."

- Jean Cocteau

Before the holidays last year, I started 3 interior paintings but never finished them. They’ve sat in my studio for the past several months and felt to me like they were missing something.

On the last day of November 2019, I lost my beloved cat Red. Three days later, my grandfather ("Gramps") also passed away. He loved cats just as much, if not more, than I did, and had several sweet cat companions throughout his life.

It’s been a rough winter. I don’t need to explain the loss of a beloved grandparent - most people have felt a loss similar and understand. But I’ve never grieved a pet before and I had no idea how intense and deep my grief was. It’s something that can’t be explained, really, unless you’ve been through it yourself: to lose a loving companion who was with you constantly. Red was 13 and a half when he died, I adopted him when he was 4 weeks old, and he had been with me ever since. I even worked from home for the past 7 years, so that’s a lot of time clocked with my sweet kitty. 

To work through my continued grief and honor both Red and Gramps, I decided to add cats to these interior paintings and donate 100% of the proceeds from the sales of these works to King Street Cats, a local no-kill, all-volunteer, cats-only shelter in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Daily Nap 

Always Curious and The Window 

You can view the paintings online here. Update: The collection has sold out - thank you! You can view my available work here.

I hope through my story and these paintings I can help out some other sweet kitties and share the love in Red and Gramps' honor. 

Photo by Anna Meyer Photo

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France

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