Animals and Art

Many years ago when I lived in a apartment with my two dogs I became friendly with the neighbor across the hall. We had a lot in common -- my bachelor's degree was in fine arts, and Kristin was an artist who also taught at the Wisconsin Lutheran College. I loved animals and Kristin had a zoo, made up of mostly birds. If I remember correctly at the time Kristin had a cage full of finches, two love-birds, two Amazon Parrots, a conure, a guinea pig and a variety of other animals which I no longer remember.

I moved out of that apartment when I bought my house eight and a half years ago, and Kristin purchased a house shortly thereafter. I now have 3 dogs. Kristin still has many of the same animals, with the addition of a dog, a rabbit and two cats. All these years we've kept in touch.

Today Kristin visited HAWS with students from her Wisconsin Lutheran College classes to paint HAWS animals. One of our rabbit volunteers had our rabbits and our guinea pig set up in our Activity Room in exercise pens. Most of the students opted to paint those animals, while others chose to sit in our kennel and paint the dogs.

This is a great opportunity -- the students get the experience of trying to paint a moving subject, and HAWS has an opportunity to educate young adults on what we do here.

The photo at the top is one of the students, Kirsten Huffman working, and to the right is a close-up of the watercolor she was working on.

Below is the water-color that art professor Kristin Gjerdset completed in just a few short minutes. Kristin is an amazing artist - with her subject matter focusing on nature and animals. Check out her website to see more of her work.