Art & Animals

One of the reasons we founded Ashland Creek Press is to use art (for us, that would be literature) as a way to draw awareness to issues surrounding animals. As one example, The Dragon Keeper is an amazing story (suspense, a love triangle, family drama, and everything else you could ask for in a novel) that’s also a subtly embedded history of the Komodo dragon. Mindy Mejia‘s research is so expertly woven into this novel you hardly realize how much you’re learning about this incredible species, endangered soon after it was discovered. And our new fiction anthology, Among Animals (forthcoming in February) takes a look at all the ways in which animals are a part of our lives.

As someone who can’t draw a straight line, I’ve always admired visual artists — especially those who use their art to do good for animals and the planet. No one does it better than Ashland’s Dana Feagin.

I just visited the Ashland Art Center to see Dana’s current exhibit, New Animals of Sanctuary One.

Like all of Dana’s animal paintings, these rescued animals are presented in all their adorable glory.

What I love about Dana’s work is how she captures these lovely animals at the best time of their lives — after they’ve found peace at Sanctuary One, a nonprofit care farm in Jacksonville, Oregon.

Best of all: These portraits are all for sale, and 10 percent of proceeds will be donated to Sanctuary One.

If you’re not in the Ashland area, visit Dana’s website to see all of her animal portraits, many of which are of rescued animals and shelter animals (she also does commissions!). And Dana donates a portion of all sales to local animal shelters.

She’s even done a portrait of our General Manager, Theo, a former rescue kitty. We especially love seeing his face on greeting cards, though when it comes to Theo, the cards are probably only appropriate for Halloween…