Monday, August 18, 2008
Fine Arts student Kami Brant, Des Moines, Iowa, senior, is donating six pet portraits to Art Unleashed, an art auction benefiting the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City.
Robin Rowland, director of development at the Humane Society, said she expected Brant’s work to be popular with the attendees.
“I’m just so excited that this college student decided to get involved,” Rowland said. “It says a lot about her personality and character.”
Brant became interested in donating her work for a good cause while taking Painting III with Tanya Hartman, associate professor of art.
Hartman said she encouraged Brant to use her love of animals in a service project because it would help to amplify the message of her work.
“It seemed right that she could use her artwork as a tool that would link both her interests,” Hartman said.
Brant used six dogs from the Humane Society as models for her work and included dedications to them on the back of the portraits. She also used her roommate’s adopted beagle as a model for one of the paintings.
Brant said she chose the dogs because they seemed to stand out to her. The only dog she painted with a collar was her roommate’s beagle because she said she wanted to show he had found a home.
She said she planned to spend about 30 minutes getting to know each dog before painting, but ended up spending closer to five hours.
Each portrait took her 12 to 15 hours to finish. She said she planned to donate 10 paintings, but changed the number to six after realizing how long each one was going to take.
Brant said she would like to complete more portraits and possibly donate art projects from other classes next year.
The Humane Society is a no-kill shelter and Rowland said the money raised at the auction would be used for food, housing and medical costs for the 140 animals living there.
“The most rewarding is knowing I helped raise money for each dog that I spent time with,” Brant said.
Rowland said a group of Hallmark artists put together the first Art Unleashed auction in 1997. Since then, about half of the donated work has come from local and regional artists.
Rowland said the Humane Society expected to have 800 attendees at the auction and hoped to raise $55,000. Last year the auction featured about 250 pieces from 150 artists and raised $50,000.
Rowland said Brant was the first student from the University of Kansas who donated artwork for the event.
“Hopefully she will inspire some other KU art students to get involved next year,” Rowland said.
The auction will take place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Mo.
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