I was talking with a friend about one of the best pets I ever had (an alley kitten from the inner city). Having grown up on a farm with a constant array of pets, that is saying a lot.

In searching out a photo to share I was reminded of a design project from a fundamentals class where I chose to use Tacey as my “object”. I am grateful for that class. It gave me a wonderful photo set of a pet who died too suddenly and way too young (12 years old).

She was a beautiful representation of design perfection – with enough design humor (as in the vanilla Hershey kiss on her face) and little artistic surprises to keep the beauty from becoming tedious.

The project was to draw the “object” in various styles. The upper left is a chalk pastel piece and one of my favorites. There is also a line drawing I like (a little Toulouse Lautrec), a comic, colored pencils, photo, sketchy, logo-esque, etc.

What was a simple classroom activity became a frame-able art piece, which will bring back fond memories for years to come.

For more design information, you can read my post in the design blog I kept during school.