An Act of Dog - An Artist's Effort to Foster Compassion (worth reading)

(cross-posted in the Lounge and GD forums)

An Act of Dog is building a forever fund and 100% of the donations go towards the salvation of shelter animals.
You can donate to his shelter efforts: http://anactofdog.org/collections/donate

Please spread this message on your various social media outlets - Facebook or whatever. Thanks.

*********************


http://www.dailygood.org/story/847/an-act-of-dog-an-artist-s-effort-to-foster-compassion-michelle-burwell/

Artist Is Painting 5,500 Euthanized Shelter Dogs to Cultivate Compassion

MICHELLE BURWELL • JUL. 2, 2014

5,500 dogs; that’s the estimated number of shelter dogs killed every day in the U.S. About one every 15- 16 seconds. But one artist is hoping to change those statistics by cultivating a new generation built on compassion.

Artist Mark Barone use to spend his time revitalizing cities ravished by blight. Now he has given up everything to paint 5,500 portraits of euthanized dogs in order to memorialize their life, illustrate the enormity of the loss each day, and to halt the practice. The undertaking was bigger than he could have ever imagined. When he’s finished, he will have painted a surface area over half the size of the Sistine Chapel. “And Michelangelo had assistants,” Mark added.



But Mark knows that no-kill shelters work. Because, he says, when killing’s no longer an option, people become resourceful. So in the fall of 2011, Mark and his girlfriend Marina Dervan, gave up their entire lives, moved across the country to Louisville, Kentucky and began dedicating all of their time, energy and money into what would become An Act of Dog. Mark is in the studio painting everyday, seven days a week, an average of 10 dogs a day. Each portrait, which includes the dog’s name and why they died, is painted onto a 12×12 inch wood panel. As of today he’s painted over 4,800 and on track to complete all 5,500 by this fall.