I am a cat lady—please feign a gasp or surprise—but I’ve never been one for animal commemoration unless it’s something super-creepy like an urn on the mantle that you can use to scare away Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, I have discovered some pet portraiture I can totally get into—the hand-painted “Beware of Dog” signs of the Himalayas! These beauties are often found on the gates of Nepali homes, but are now falling out of style in favor of mass-produced signs.
As luck would have it, American traveler Michelle Page has set up a new market for the art at Nepal Art Dogs. You can send in a picture of your beloved creature for a custom portrait! Not only is she expanding the market for these artists, she appears to be doing it ethically, saying, “I pay fair trade wages, the artists get to paint again, pet lovers get a choice of three paintings for each commission, and I get to help Nepali artists make a living.”
So you can actually have your dog/cat/chicken immortalized in this milieu. They’re bright, technically sophisticated, and just plain lovely. Yes, these paintings will do quite nicely as I collect more and more cats…
More after the jump…
