“Visual art is a way to express a personal vision to someone else. When doing pet portraits (or for that matter any commissioned piece) as an artist I translate how I feel about the subject into the painting. That's the main advantage of artistic portraits over photography: the emotional landscape of the artist invariably affects the work; it's not just plain representation of the subject matter. The artist becomes an emotional part of the work. I always try to put my emotional reaction into the portrait or work. That is really what makes art, art.”