Each year, members of the National Art Honors Society create custom pet portraits that are sold to community members, with the proceeds donated to Austin Pets Alive, a nonprofit animal shelter. Buyers submit photos of their pets, and student artists are assigned a portrait to complete using the medium of their choice. The completed portraits are then delivered in exchange for a donation.
Pet portraits offer students the opportunity to use their skills for a charitable cause. Recipients of the art support not only APA, but the art program as well.
Senior art major Forrest Fiedler has participated in the pet portrait fundraiser every year of high school and now serves as a senior officer in the society.
“I’ve been doing art my whole life,” Fiedler said. “In the past, when I wasn’t an officer, you got a little folder with a picture of your pet and a blank piece of paper to do the portrait on, and you just got assigned a random pet. You can use any medium you want, so you can use colored pencil, acrylic paint, or water color paint, or really whatever you want to do, but it has to be high quality.”
Students receive these folders annually from early to mid-February and have to finish them by spring break. This year, 56 artists are contributing. Portraits are $60 each and can be purchased on the visual arts booster website. 95% of the proceeds go to APA, where they will be used to save the lives of pets staying in the no-kill shelter.
“We put all of that money that we get, and we write a check of one big donation to Austin Pets Alive,” Fiedler said. “The one that I did last year was a very cute white pitbull, and in my sophomore year I did a very fluffy cat.”
Senior Sage Flowers, an art and dance major, has been involved with the organization since her freshman year and now helps lead the effort. Flowers is one of the officers who focuses on the committee for pet portraits.
“I joined the National Art Honors society my freshman year, and that’s when I did my first pet portrait,” Flowers said. “As a junior, I became an Art Society officer, so I worked with a team of 10 other Art Society officers to put together volunteer opportunities for other Art Society members. This will be the only year I don’t do a pet portrait, just because I’m busy with all the other logistical work, but in the past I’ve used gouache, acrylic paint and Prismacolor colored pencils with watercolor for the pet portraits. I remember my sophomore year, I did a cute pitbull, and last year I did a double portrait of two pugs.”
Supporting the students behind the scenes is art teacher Natalie Kleinecke Pantuso, who is serving as the National Art Honor Society sponsor for the first time this year. For previous years, Sarah Massey Lynch has been in charge of the Art Society, but after a promotion to co-head of the fine arts department, she could no longer take on the role of being in charge of the society, and Pantuso stepped in. While students take the lead creatively, she helps manage the organizational side of the fundraiser.
Pantuso teaches art 1, and loves her job. All of the budgeting, new members, and meeting times are organized by her.
“Just like anything it has its ups and downs but at this point in my life I would say I’m doing my dream job,” Pantuso said. “My whole life’s trajectory has taken me here and McCallum is the best or one of the best places to teach art. I enjoy it and I love it. This is my first year as a National Art Honors Society sponsor, so I’m still learning. There’s lots of accounting involved, fees, collecting money, depositing said money so keeping track of our budget, facilitating meetings, I’m a point of contact for people outside of Art Society who are looking for volunteers, I post on our Blend page, help with communications and other administrative tasks like securing the theater for our induction ceremony, things like that.”
Pantuso helps to support the society this year, and is enthusiastic about this new position.
Through the pet portrait fundraiser, the National Art Honor Society supports local shelters beyond the classroom. Through the pet portraits, students are able to help animals in need while gaining experience as artists.
