Saturday, March 3, 2018

Jan Rescues

Rescued
Judy Takács

With her whole heart and soul, Jan provides a welcoming home for pets that have been abandoned elsewhere. She is an activist and advocate for creatures great and small through her work with the Rescue Village in Geauga County, where she has volunteered for the past 28 years fulfilling just about every need this Humane Center has; performing transports, serving on many committees, working on events and chairing campaigns. She now serves on the board of trustees of this caring and very necessary organization. 

I wanted to depict Jan with her creatures, a sweet dog, Indigo with one blue eye and a brown one and a shy cat named Diesel who posed beautifully and obliged my chasing her with a camera surprisingly well. 

Visually, I was intrigued by the black and charcoal coloring of her lovely pets, and the strong silhouettes made by their sleek bodies. There’s a sad statistic that states that black dogs and cats are least likely to be rescued…not in Jan’s house though. Indigo and Diesel are happy, healthy and here to stay.

When I came to visit her house and meet her pets, Jan presented me with two feathers…a black one and a white one. They were such a perfect visual foil for both her gorgeous dark pets with white chest markings. I had to include them in the painting…and because feathers are so fun to paint, I really went to town with the feather concept! 

Jan also wrote down for me the Native American concept behind a feather… a lovely piece of symbolic wisdom:

Each part of the feather is symbolic of a life.

The quill represents our inner strength and the path we are on.

The feather is divided into two parts, male or female, good or bad, right or wrong.

The fluffy down at the bottom is infancy; our beginning.

The Veins represent the days of our lives and the choices we make.

And the top is adulthood. 


And, since this painting is part of the Chicks with Balls series,
you might well ask, Where are the balls?

The answer is: there are none…nor are there ovaries. Jan is a firm believer in spaying and neutering all rescued pets.
 

So happy to announce that Rescued will be showing for the first time in Northeast Ohio at Lakeland Community College in March! Please join me at the artist reception on Sunday March 25th, or stop by and see the always fabulous from WOMAN show…organized year after year by the ever-amazing Mary Urbas, gallery director at Lakeland.


“from WOMAN XI”
Lakeland Community College
February 25th through March 31st

Meet the Artists Reception:
Sunday, March 25th from 3:30 to 5:00

Lakeland Community College
7700 Clocktower Drive
Kirtland, Ohio