Drawing is something I have enjoyed doing since I was a child. Then in high school I became interested in photography. Now I have begun to merge my two passions of photography and drawing. I love taking pictures - children (well, mainly my daughter and her friends) and animals are my favorite subjects. One day I decided to try drawing a portrait of my daughter based on one of my favorite photos of her. I was impressed with how it turned out and was immediately hooked. I bought a few books about drawing to learn proper techniques and just started drawing whatever I could. I did some portraits for friends of their children and they loved them so much they urged me to start a business. So I decided to take the plunge and see if I can earn a few extra dollars with something that I love to do.

I’m not ready to quit my day job – which I also love – as an animal behavior research scientist. I work at the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society (CIAS) of the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School where I do research on dog behavior. Mostly I work with guide and assistance dog organizations developing ways of measuring behavior and predicting which dogs will be best suited for the work (usually about 50% of dogs that start a program are released and adopted out because they don’t have the right temperament for the work). I also do research on the behavior of everyday pet dogs. Most of the research utilizes a survey (the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire, or “C-BARQ”) that is filled out by dog owners (or puppy raisers for guide/assistance dogs). Anyone can fill out the questionnaire so if you have a dog, check it out! It’s fun!

How does one become an animal behavior research scientist? For me it was college followed by graduate school. I have a Bachelor of Science degree from Lafayette College (majored in Psychology), which is where I discovered that I could actually turn my fascination with animals into a career under the wonderful mentorship of Prof. Wendy Hill. I then earned a doctorate in Psychology at The Johns Hopkins University studying the behavior of songbirds under the outstanding guidance of Prof. Greg Ball. I continued to study birds during a post-doctoral fellowship at Indiana University (with Prof. Ellen Ketterson) then at the University of Pennsylvania (with Dr. David White). I still love birds but wanted to do research that was more directly applied to everyday life. When an opportunity arose to study dog behavior with Dr. James Serpell at UPenn I jumped on it and haven’t regretted it for a moment.

One thing I have really come to appreciate since I’ve been working at CIAS is how much people adore their pets. So when doing a pet portrait I try to capture the unique features and personality that makes that individual animal so special. Of course, I try to do the same when drawing portraits of people too!

For Amanda’s portrait (see “portraits” page), the photo I was using as a reference showed two misplaced pieces of hair hanging over her face. I could have left those out but I know that those misplaced hairs are part of who she is – their placement in the portrait tell people something about her personality. When I presented the portrait to Amanda’s mom, the first thing she said was “You even got the hair in her face!” For Alexa’s portrait I took great care to capture the wry little twist to her mouth because that is uniquely hers. When her mom saw the portrait for the first time she said “She still does that with her mouth!”

I think the qualities about me that have made me well-suited for a career as a scientist also help me create special portraits of people and animals that capture the spirit of whoever I’m drawing: 1) painstaking attention to detail and 2) a profound understanding of behavior, both human and animal.