It all started with Ross, a black pit bull. Then, came Penelope, from Miami-Dade. And third, Rusty, who's wearing a green sweater.
- Palm Harbor woman paints portraits of euthanized dogs from shelters
- Mary Vretas says canvases serve as a memoir
- Mary hopes paintings will show shelter dogs aren't 'damaged goods'
Now, Mary Vretas has a collection of nearly 40 hand-painted canvases on the wall of her Palm Harbor home, a proverbial family of shelter dogs.
"It was like a personal catharsis I guess you could say, but then when I finished it I was like wow... I really like this," she said.
The family is continuing to grow. Each one of these paintings is of a shelter dog who passed away after being euthanized at one of the state's crowded animal shelters.
"We direct our anger when we hear that dogs are being euthanized at shelters, and it's easy to do that, but more than anything it's a people problem," she explained.
Mary takes each dog's photo from Facebook, or a shelter website, and paints their personality. Each of the canvases serve as a memoir.
"I'm kind of assigning a face, a soul, so it's not me telling you that 5,000 dogs died in shelters across the country today, it's that you're looking at that dog as a dignified subject," she said.
The goal is to tug on heartstrings and show everyone who sees the collection that shelter dogs are not 'damaged goods'. She hopes that those wanting to add to their family adopt a dog who hasn't had a loving home.
You can follow Mary's work by visiting her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/mvretasart/