Artist Statement
Imprinted
Imprint • v |im’print| “A young animal comes to recognize another animal, or person as a parent or object of habitual trust.”
Our connection with our pets is a strong bond formed through moments of love and reliance on one another. Domesticated animals have been around since the Neolithic Era. We have always needed that connection with other animals. Today pets are a staple of most modern households. They are deeply rooted in our lives and daily routines.
I have had six dogs in my life from when I was a baby to now. Before I was born there was Skippy. He was my protector and the dog that saw me at the earliest part of life. Pets are cherished and treated as members of the family. Throughout my childhood there was Max and Sparkle. Max even saw me through my young adulthood. They were my first dogs, I remember making pancakes for their birthday and hanging stockings up for them on Christmas. The bond formed with one’s pet is special. You have an animal that relies on you, but you rely on them just as much. Through my young adulthood, I have had my dogs Rosie, Bella and Ginny. In the United States over 68% of households have a pet, which is 84.6 million homes. Though dogs and cats are the most popular pets’ other animals such as horses, birds, fish, reptiles, hamsters, and rats, are also included. Pets bring joy and give their owners a sense of purpose.
Pets can be some people’s reason to wake up in the morning and get out of the house. This summer I was building a portfolio of dog portraits. I went to the local dog park with my sister, her boyfriend and their dogs, while at the park I photographed some of the dogs there. The most interesting part of this process was talking with other owners about the connection they had with dogs. This inspired me to create this project.
Pets bring emotional support and comfort to the crazy world we live in. Especially during a global pandemic. While living at home during the lockdown my pets helped me feel better after a bad day. One day during the pandemic I was feeling frustrated and sad, I was laying in my bed crying when my dog Bella came barging into my room and hopped onto my bed and started to kiss my face, making me laugh and stopping my crying.The bond between owner and pet is similar to the relationship humans have with each other. For more than 15,000 years the humans and animals’ bond has evolved into what it is today. Dogs were bred for human needs. For example, smaller dogs such as Dachshunds, literally translates to Badger dog in German, were bred to be vermin exterminators. My dogs allow me to feel joy in some of my darkest times. The connection felt by pets and their owners is a bond as strong as family ties.
When I was nine my dog Sparkle passed away suddenly and I still remember that day, every detail, it felt as if the world had slowed down and that there was no light left. When I was a freshman in college I lived 5 hours away from home; during my first semester there my childhood dog Max had not been doing well. My family had decided to put him down. That was one of the hardest things I’ve experienced. I grew up with Max, he was a piece of my childhood and teenage years, not being there to say goodbye still hurts today. There have been burial sites discovered from the Iron Age in Rome to Japan between 8,500 and 8,000 years ago, to the Victorian age in England and North American pet cemeteries in the early twentieth century. Pets become a piece of you, the memories you create with them live with you.
Pets imprint on our hearts and on our lives.