Calling all animal lovers! The Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF), a non-profit organization that relies on donations and volunteers to help take care of animals who are looking for their forever homes, has created an amazing opportunity for its supporters and the community to champion the local cause. The Foundation has found three incredibly talented artists to recreate photos of people’s pets in the form of portraits.
“Fetch-A-Sketch was developed to benefit our shelter as well as local artists that were affected by the aftermath of COVID-19,” Kate McEntee, Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation Director of Adoptions, relayed. “A way to bring the community together while being socially distance. You can get an amazing portrait of your pet and help our shelter during these times.”
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Camille McMennamin’s works. (Courtesy Photo) |
SASF is a safe haven for many animals who are found on the streets, are neglected and abandoned, or are saved from puppy mills. The animals at Southampton Animal Shelter are given housing, food, training, rehabilitation, and medical treatment.
Artists Tiffany Bowman, Lauren DeFoto, and Camille McMennamin will be tapping into their admiration for animals and talents to create the extraordinary Fetch-A-Sketch portraits.
“Lauren is an adoption coordinator at our shelter and is very talented artist. Tiffany has worked with us before at a couple of our different events and is a wonderful artist and designer,” McEntee noted. “Camille is a new friend and a supporter of the shelter who is accomplished artist.”
Bowman, a local nature, animal, and science lover has brought together these passions with her full-time career as a scientific illustrator and designer to team up with the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation. While Bowman loves her job, her greatest joy comes from drawing people’s pets. Her inspiration is largely drawn from her dog Marley and her two cats Kaya and Pica.
DeFoto is an adoption coordinator at Southampton Animal Shelter who has brought together her two greatest passions, drawing and animals, to create amazing color drawings, pencil and ink drawings, and acrylics. For Fetch-A-Sketch, DeFoto asks customers to submit two high-resolution photos of their pet, their name, and a description of their personality and/or background.
McMennamin is currently represented by Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in Chelsea. Her work has been in private collections in America and Europe. She offers oil pastel sketches on paper, graphite, pastel, or a watercolor drawing on paper, and acrylic paintings.
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Tiffany Bowman’s creations. (Courtesy Photo) |
“This fundraiser is to benefit local artists as well as our shelter. $20 from each painting will go directly to our shelter to help support the pets in our care,” McEntee shared. “This is our first endeavor year and based on its success, we would consider doing it annual perhaps next year featuring additional artists.”
The final day to order a sketch is July 10th.
Throughout the pandemic, SASF has continued to help SASFans find their forever homes. “We are open on a limited basis. We are still doing roadside adoptions and fosters for our dogs and skyping/facetiming for our cats,” she added. “We have begun letting people into the catios to meet the cats- also by appointment only. We continue to rule of social distancing to continue to keep everyone safe and healthy.”
For more information on the artists and Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, visit southamptonanimalshelter.com.
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