For dog and cat lovers everywhere, their animals aren’t just pets – they’re part of the family. So when Oakland Animal Services (OAS) made a push to get 25 animals into forever homes, they teamed with local artists to create original portraits for families to hang on their walls when they brought a dog, cat or bunny home.
The “Home is where the heART is” campaign, developed by Oakland-based ad agency Arson, partnered with 20 painters, photographers, illustrators and even a quilter to make one-of-a-kind art of the OAS adoptees. The idea stemmed from the realization that pets give so much love to their owners, what better way to welcome them to the family than with their own portrait.
“We’re huge fans of animals at Arson – especially rescues. So helping these wonderful dogs and cats find great homes is a dream project for us. We were thrilled to be working with OAS on this,” says Matt Morin, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Arson.
Local artists, comprising a wide range of styles and techniques, were selected to participate. “We thought we might have some difficulty finding great artists willing to do this for free, but nearly everyone we contacted said yes immediately and they were really excited to participate,” said Mr. Morin. “We can’t thank them enough for their generosity, enthusiasm and incredible talent.”
Each artist visited OAS, got to know the animals’ personalities, and then chose the subjects for their pieces. The artists worked in whatever format they preferred and donated not only their time and artistic ability, but all supplies and even some frames to the effort. Several of the artists simply couldn’t choose just one animal and painted, photographed or drew multiple pets.
Artists Tessa Brunton, Fred Noland, Kim Roth, Gabriel Harber, Pascale Wowak, Louis Raphael, Adrienne Simms, Michael Wertz, Bar Davi, Ruth Marcus, Nancy Brown, Doni Conner, Jessica Henry, Allie Kregness, David Polka, Kate Merriman, Ellen Shershow Pena, Josh Norem, Trish Roque and Melissa Rae Lopez all contributed to help these amazing animals find great new homes. Arson also pitched in, designing the campaign poster, postcards, social media graphics and more.
The campaign kicked off a few days before Valentine’s Day with an event at Farley’s, a local coffee house. Both the artwork and some animals were on hand and Farley’s donated a portion of the evening’s proceeds to OAS as well.
“I couldn’t think of a better time to find your four-legged true love,” explained OAS director Rebecca Katz.
Then, throughout the month the campaign was in full swing, the artwork was displayed in both the OAS lobby and Farley’s windows – giving Oaklanders a chance to see the art and spread the word. To sweeten the deal even more, Oakland Animal Services waived adoption fees for all the “Home is where the heART is” animals. Adopters returned at the end of the campaign and took home the artwork of their new pet for free.
A strong PR push and social media campaign attracted even more people. The animals and the artwork appeared on local morning TV news, and local radio covered the event as well. When the artists’ work was showcased on the OAS Facebook page, it garnered hundreds of shares and comments. The Animal Planet blog even ran a story on the campaign.
Many of the animals in the campaign had been at the shelter for months, while others were traditionally harder-to-adopt pit bulls that have a tough time finding families. However by the end of February, 18 of the 25 animals had been adopted and several more had strong interest from potential adopters.
Oakland resident, Michael Hamilton and his family ended up with two of the featured pups in the portraits. “We actually met Dahlia shortly after she came to OAS in December when we were starting to think about adopting. We promised to give ourselves a 60 day ‘cooling off’ period before actually adopting a pup… so we didn’t initially meet Dahlia with an intention to take her home. But since we kept seeing her in OAS social media channels and on Discovery/Animal Planet! she stayed on our mind. We were really surprised no one adopted her since she was such a sweetie.
We adopted Pie without realizing he was also part of the art project. In fact, the artist who was commissioned to do his portrait saw the social-media buzz around the adoption of Pie and Dahlia adoption and wrote to us directly to let us know she was nearly done with her portrait. A great surprise!” Evidently, the buzz around this event was loud!
The campaign was such a hit, there were even calls from shelters and animal rescues as far away as Albany, NY with people interested in replicating the project.
It’s no secret that people truly love their animals and consider them part of the family. Oakland Animal Services’ “Home is where the heART is” tapped into that sentiment and – with the help of some talented local artists – created a lasting reminder of the bond pet owners feel. Plus – who wouldn’t want to hang a one-of-a-kind portrait of their own pet on their wall, especially when it comes attached to a wonderful rescue animal?
Matt Morin is the co-founder and creative director of Arson, an advertising and communications firm in Oakland. He’s also a long-time rescue volunteer and lives with his wife, daughter and three rescue dogs of his own.
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Main article photo by: Nancy Brown Forsythia
