Step on no Pets

Description: This artwork was designed especially for the Animal Control Shelter and covers both sides of the waiting room wall.  The materials are ceramic tiles and found objects including shards of mirror glass.  

The mural concentrates on the spirit of animals, as the artist says, "from their honor to their innocence."  Some images in the artwork represent animal "personalities," imagined animals and pets of friends and of the artist.  Beaumont's cats, Nemo and Lillian, and a friend's dog, Chet, provided the models for some of the elements in the mural.  A series of small narrations depicting the relationships between animals and pets are shown around the wall.  Guard dogs run in a row across the center of the mural.  A colony of tiny dogs nestles together.  A cat sits beside its alter-ego; the cat which has finally caught its tail.  Crushed dog-food cans reproduced in raku form the border between the two sides of the mural and remind viewers to feed their pets.  A tiny pair of blue high-heeled shoes is the reminder to the· viewer to "Step on No Pets."

The mural wall and other borders of the waiting area are banded by floor tiles; patterns glazed onto the tiles are specific to each separate area of the shelter and suggest territorial markings reflective of animal territoriality.

Location: Seattle Animal Shelter, 2061 15th Avenue West, Seattle WA  98119