Memorial Pet Art, giving the love of an animal back to the owner.

As a pet photographer and dog owner, my WHY lead to this teaching path of memorial art. If you are a pet photographer consider memorial art .

Every year my husband and I go to Martha's Vineyard. We learned early on, to go in September. One of our dogs was on almost every trip. His name was Murphy and he turned 15 in November, 2023. In 2022, while photographing seascapes, my husband and Murphy were down the beach walking and running on the beach. Stan, my husband was laughing and smiling like a boy with his dog! I didn't capture it and I regretted it the entire way home from vacation. In October and November, I kept saying I was so sorry I didn't capture that moment. Murphy was turning 14 that year and what were the odds that he would join us another year on vacation? The second week of January, Murphy needed emergency gall bladder surgery. He was diabetic and had Cushing's, so the surgery was risky but my vet felt very confident. Murphy came through the surgery like a champ. Now the count down to September. Would I get this photo I wanted so badly? A week before our trip they started talking about a new hurricane. A hurricane named Lee. We went up to Martha's Vineyard on September 9th with the hope of one nice sunset, knowing that we might be heading home early from the trip. All I wanted was this one image, of Murphy and Stan on the beach in Aquinnah. I got a great image to work from and then created this painting in Photoshop. The waves and colors were extra big because of the hurricane heading towards the island. I am so glad that I got this image. If I had not been able to capture this image, I could have created it with new technology from images I did have. Either way, having that memory recreated on the wall of a home if very healing for the grieving process. Murphy passed away December 27th, 2023 at 15.