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We hope that all
of you were able to attend our Animals in the Arts event on October
14th. It was truly a magnificent tribute to the human-animal bond.
We want to thank all those who donated their time and talents, and
especially George Daugherty who brought it all about. Below you will
find the tribute from the program that George wrote to his beloved
dog Toby. It encompasses so much about the love we have for our
pets, about Pets Unlimited, and about why we’ve done what we do for
60 years!
A CONCERT FOR TOBY . . . AND ALL
OUR PETS
 When
my partner David and I moved to San Francisco in 2000 with Mishi and
Toby, our two Golden Retrievers, everybody we knew said “You must
use Pets Unlimited as your veterinarians!” And so, our first
experience with this extraordinary place was fantastic but routine –
vaccinations, check-ups, ear cleanings. You know, dog stuff.
But it was through two difficult
illnesses at the end of both Mishi’s and Toby’s lives that we saw
the true heart of Pets Unlimited. And through an absolutely
extraordinary “team coordinated” plan of acute medical care, both
dogs lived a year longer, at a very high quality of life, than
anybody thought possible. From the gang at the front desk to the
incredible vet techs, and of course, to the truly amazing doctors,
the staff of Pets Unlimited could not give of themselves enough.
For this, we will never be able to
thank Pets Unlimited adequately. But today’s concert is at least an
attempt.
Our beloved Toby’s loss was the most
recent, and still is poignant for us. Toby had a sweetness,
gentleness, and generosity of spirit that was unique and magical. We
miss him fiercely, but treasure the years we had with him – and
especially the gift of those extra final months, which were in no
small part thanks to Pets Unlimited.
So today’s concert is for Toby. But
it’s also for all the dogs and cats who have come through Pets
Unlimited in one way or the other. Whether as an indigent mutt off
the streets or a well-heeled Presidio Heights pooch... whether as a
pure bred cat with a malady, or a sick rescue kitten that no other
shelter would bother with but Pets Unlimited DOES and nurtures back
to health. No matter what their circumstances and means may be, Pets
Unlimited treats all of their charges as a life to be treasured,
cherished, loved, and healed. Quite literally, they heal and rescue
pets that, with such generosity, go on to heal and rescue us!
The Musicians
 GEORGE
DAUGHERTY, Conductor
Emmy
Award-winning conductor George Daugherty has been a frequent guest
conductor of The San Francisco Symphony, as well as such major
American and international ensembles as The Cleveland Orchestra, The
Philadelphia Orchestra, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, and The Sydney
Opera House. He is well known for his orchestra-and-film concert
Bugs Bunny On Broadway, which has toured the world and played to
nearly two million audience members as it celebrates the classic era
of Warner Bros. Studios cartoons and their inspired Carl Stalling
orchestral scores.
 AMY TAN,
Narrator
Acclaimed author Amy Tan has received critical acclaim worldwide for
her best selling novels The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen
God’s Wife, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The
Bonesetter’s Daughter, among many others. No stranger to the
concert stage, Ms. Tan and Daugherty have teamed together for prior
concerts with The San Francisco Symphony and The Los Angeles
Philharmonic. The operatic version of The Bonesetter’s Daughter
receives its world premiere next season with The San Francisco
Opera.
 KEISUKE
NAKAGOSHI, Pianist
A native of Japan and
now resident of San Francisco, Keisuke Nakagoshi is one of the most
exciting young pianists on today’s music scene. In 2005, he made his
debut at The Kennedy Center, and has already worked and performed
with such iconic musicians as Lucy Shelton, Joseph Alessi, Karl
Leister, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Robert Mann, Norman
Fisher, and The Peabody Trio. Currently a pianist in residence at
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he recently won the
Conservatory’s 2006 Concerto Competition. In 2005 he was selected to
represent the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for the
Conservatory Project at the Kennedy Center in a program featuring
young artists from leading U.S. Conservatories.
 MARC
SHAPIRO, Pianist
A member of the San Francisco Symphony, MARC SHAPIRO was also the
San Francisco Symphony Chorus accompanist from 1984-2003. He has
toured with the San Francisco Symphony throughout Europe and the
United States. Mr. Shapiro plays principal keyboard with the
California Symphony and performs with other ensembles such as
Composer's Inc., San Francisco Choral Artists, San Francisco Chamber
Orchestra, and on Chamber Music Sundae, San Francisco Symphony
Chamber Music Series and The Mohonk Festival of the Arts in New
York.
 KRISTIN CLAYTON, Soprano
Soprano Kristin Clayton has received rave reviews for her
performances in leading roles with The San Francisco Opera, as well
as other major companies worldwide She most recently received
adulation from press and public when she stepped in at the last
moment for soprano Renee Fleming in the world premiere of Jake
Heggie’s and Terrence McNally’s one-woman opera “At The Statue of
Venus,” which just opened Denver’s new Ellie Caulkins Opera
House.
 TAMORA
PELIKKA, Mezzo Soprano
Mezzo Tamora Pellikka is one of the opera world’s most
dynamic new artists, and has performed with The San Francisco
Symphony, and most recently at The Graz Festival in Austria.
Concert, opera and musical roles include a leading role in Deck
The Halls with The San Francisco Symphony, Prince Orlofsky in
Die Fledermaus, Mercedes in Carmen, Madame Peep in P.D.Q.
Bach’s Oedipus Tex and Sally Bowles in Cabaret. She
has participated in Songfest in Malibu three times, where she has
worked with composers Jake Heggie, John Harbison and Ricky Ian
Gordon.
The Artists
JOHN AARON
www.modernarf.smugmug.com
John Aaron began his art
career at the age of six when he made a small yellow cocker spaniel
out of clay. 2,500 drawings and sculptures of dogs (and now cats)
later, his work has been showcased at many of the top galleries
around the nation including the Denver Art Museum and the AKC Museum
of the Dog in St. Louis. Founding the Museum of Modern ARF in
cyberspace in 1999,
modernarf.com it was also an alternative art space in Arlington,
VA from 2002-2006 with John as the director.
He has adopted two retiring Guide dogs trained in San Rafael, Sonnet
and Garbo, and currently has a little white cat named White Guy who
is his model. John is also involved with CHALK4PEACE, the young
artists' global art project that takes place every September.
Websites are
chalk4peace.org and
Modernarf.smugmug.com. He is most well known for his
impersonations of his friends' dogs.
PAT BOYD
www.patboydphotography.com
What began as a weekend hobby of photographing dogs
cavorting at Crissy Field and the pups meeting and greeting at San
Francisco’s monthly Chihuahua Cha Cha using her Olympus
point-and-shoot camera led to a mid-life career change for Pat
Boyd. While she received wildly enthusiastic responses from
Craigslist Pets forum posters to the photos she shared, she didn’t
consider the possibility of turning her passion into a career until
she adopted her own pup, Maddie. When Maddie came into her life,
she upgraded her camera gear to a digital SLR to better capture her
beloved puppy and not long after, Pat Boyd Photography was born.
Pat quickly decided that she needed to go beyond outdoor work and
also added studio photography to her repertoire, bringing another
dimension to her work. Pat’s switch to photography was quite a
change from her career that focused primarily on genetic testing
research and, more recently, database and web programming. Her work
is becoming more recognized in the Bay area, particularly for her
shot of a Vizsla jumping in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. She
recently was featured in Professional Photographer magazine’s
article about pet photographers.
JENNIFER EWING & LEO GERMANO
www.ewinggermano.com
The Tribute Mural at Pets Unlimited
 Jennifer
has been drawing her pets since she was in grade
school. She has always loved art and it was easy to follow that
path throughout High School in Chicago, IL where she attended the
Art Institute for extra classes in figure drawing and art history.
After graduating from Monmouth College, IL she started teaching
kids art, worked as an illustrator and taught drawing at Mesa State
College in Grand Jct. CO before moving to SF in 1981.
One of the first things that she did upon her arrival was
to adopt a cat from Pets Unlimited. Seven years as a graphic artist
for engineering firms gave her a springboard to pursuing a dream of
painting full time. Jennifer joined with her husband and fellow
artist, Leo Germano to form Ewing & Germano, a mural and large scale
painting business in 1989. One of the highlights of the 18 year old
business was designing and painting the Pet Tribute Mural for Pets
Unlimited in 2007. Along with the practice of painting and drawing,
Jennifer also does figurative sculpture and her favorite model is
her cat, Jocko.
 Leo started drawing during his elementary school years in South San
Francisco. While in high school, he had his first real art classes,
and then at College of San Mateo, his real art education began. All
through this period of growth, Leo drew at home, and built his own
art studio in his backyard. Moving to Los Angeles, he attended the Chouinard School of the California School of the Arts and graduated
with a BFA in 1965. As a secondary school teacher in the Malaysia
XI Peace Corps program, he was able to pass on drafting and
woodworking skills to his students for two years. After which, his
career path wove together skills in drafting, draftsmanship, design,
urban planning, display and promotional techniques, printed and
three-dimensional matter and most lately, painting and photography.
All the while, humor and fantasy were important elements in his
free time, sometimes finding expression in series of drawings of
unlikely animal, insect, or technical subjects.
GALEN HAZELHOFER
www.angeldoggie.com
Since retiring from a career in graphic design, Galen
now does pet portraits (She has always been an “animal” person) and
donates pet portraits to a number of animal rescue groups for their
fundraisers. These groups are close to her heart in what they do.
She
now lives 15
minutes from the in San Andreas, CA, and when she met the
owners and the elephants, she fell in love with elephants and has
done a lot of research on how awful their lives are in captivity,
particularly circuses but often zoos are cruel places for them as
well. She donates paintings of elephants for the Performing Animal
Welfare Society fundraisers and the LA Alliance for Elephants.
MICHAEL LEU
www.michaelleu.com
As early as age seven,
Michael Leu gained recognition as an artist after winning first
place in the International Children's painting contest in Tokyo,
Japan. Michael studied fine art and design in Taiwan in the late
60's and learned his printmaking technique at Otis Parsons in Los
Angeles in the early 80's.
Michael's images
convey both a native innocence as well as worldly sophistication
which together give the viewer a satisfying response. Whether it be
his cats, women, or landscapes, Michael's extraordinary sense of
color, his spontaneous yet well-executed placement of images, all
invoke in us a sense of well-being, a smile, a chuckle, a delightful
moment of enhanced comprehension of our surroundings.
MELINDA LAWTON
www.melindalawton.com
Melinda
Lawton’s design resume includes award-winning creations for
virtually every major film studio and television network, including
ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox, The WB, Warner Bros., Paramount, New Line,
Disney, A&E, The History Channel, The Learning Channel, The
Discovery Channel, The Travel Channel, King World, and many more.
Her spectacular creativity has resulted in numerous awards and
accolades, including two national Emmy nominations.
Born in Indiana, she moved around all her life, as the daughter of
an Air Force Test Pilot. She received a BA in Graphic Design from
the University of Florida and began her career in Boston...soon
becoming the Director of Video Design at the NBC station. From there
she was lured to NYC with an offer to become the Art Director for
WABC-TV. After 2 years she relocated to Los Angeles to start her own
business -- Lawton Design (www.lawtondesign.com).
PATTI MILLER
www.pattimillerartist.com
Let’s face it, your pet is a
work of art. Painter Patti Miller captures on canvas the full range
of grace, humor, compassion and courage embodied by pets and their
people. As seen on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and in National
Geographic magazine, Miller’s paintings celebrate human-animal bonds
from heart-warming to hilarious to heroic.
Patti Miller has been a visual
artist for as long as she can remember. She has a BFA from Albertus
Magnus College in New Haven CT. She works in a range of mediums
including acrylic on canvas, pen and ink illustration, and woodcuts.
She is an accomplished decorative painter, and has worked with many
clients in the Bay Area doing faux finishes and murals. She
regularly does color consultation and project management for
residential and commercial sites. In addition, she is a graphic
design and production artist.
LARRY MORACE
www.moraceart.com
Larry is a guy who needs to draw and paint. Engaged with
art’s formal elements of point and line to plane, his starting
points are visual patterns caused by light and shadow. “I see edges
of things and how they become volumes. But almost any kind of
scribble can get me started.” This traditional formalist approach is
a constant for him. Content varies and can surprise him. “Never saw
myself going to the dogs”, he says about his recent interest in
canine portraits.
He’d like to mention Charles Burchfield, Lovis Corinth, Alberto
Giacometti, Georgio Morandi, and Alice Neel as painters he’s
particularly inspired by.
JAQUELINE PROBERT
www.Probertart.com
Probert Art,
located in San Francisco, California, has been successfully creating
and providing murals, trompe l´oeil, faux finishes, custom wall
glazes and design solutions for their clients since 1985. Their work
appears in America´s finest homes and businesses, from the Getty
Residence in Woodside California, to the Crystal Harmony Cruise
Ship, port of call Copenhagen, Denmark. They are a full-service
studio providing thoughtful guidance by classically trained artists.
Partners Jacqueline Probert and Ted Somogyi combine over 20 years of
experience and education with a genuine love of art. The artists are
mindful of facilitating their clients' creative energies and
visions, while working to give quality and careful attention to all
projects, believing that "beauty is our highest calling."
Jacqueline is also an avid animal
welfare advocate and a Pets Unlimited Trustee.
BRANDIS SARICH
www.astropup.com
Brandis
L. Sarich received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with highest
honors at University of California at Berkeley.
An
avid love of horses brought her to Ketchum, Idaho where she expanded
her art career to painting commissioned and original artwork of pet
in layers of conte crayon, watercolor, acrylic and soft pastel on
watercolor paper.
Her work is a
play between opacity and translucence and is described as
"architectural", meaning it's about space and shape. Her colorful,
warm, delightful renderings are certainly a special way to display
an image of dearly loved pets or add to your collection of animal
paintings.
LAURA SEELEY www.lauraseeley.com
Originally from Andover, MA,
Laura Seeley lives in San Francisco with her three cats, 12 year old
Ebi and her two Animal Care & Control adopted SF orphans, Fig and
Basil, ages 2 and 1. They are huge sources of inspiration for her
feline paintings and drawings.
Laura taught
commercial, editorial and children’s book illustration at the
Atlanta College of Art, and she co-piloted the Atlanta area’s
Authors & Illustrators In Schools programs, doing interactive
presentations at elementary schools. Laura continues to do these
programs today around the country.
Her books have won
awards from several organizations, including The Society of
Illustrators in American Illustration and the southeast’s
Council of Authors and Journalists. Since completing the beloved
The Book of Shadowboxes, Laura has written and
illustrated a number of other titles; The Magical Moonballs,
McSpot’s Hidden Spots and Shadowbox Hunt. Most
recently she illustrated NY Times Best Seller and award winner
The Boy of Steel. Other books she has illustrated are
musician Tom T. Hall’s Christmas and the Old House,
storyteller Carmen Deedy’s Agatha’s Featherbed and
Ruth Tiller’s Cats Vanish Slowly.
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