‘Celebrating Unconditional Love’—

One-Day Art Exhibition Will Draw Smiles

For Animal And Art Enthusiasts Alike

By Shannon Hicks

The Animal Center will benefit from funds raised during a special art event being planned for the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Of course, attendees can also benefit from the selection of art that will be offered for sale and through auction, while enjoying hors d’oeuvres and wine tastings at McLaughlin Vineyards.

“Celebrating Unconditional Love” will take place at the vineyard, 15 Alberts Hill Road in Sandy Hook, on Saturday, September 3. It will run from noon to 6 pm.

The Animal Center is well known in Newtown for its efforts fostering and placing homeless cats, as well as assisting with spaying and release of feral felines. Since March, the animal rescue organization has made a switch from exclusively a cat rescue operation to one that now includes dogs.

Founded by Monica Potter in 2004, The Animal Center is a volunteer-staffed, Newtown-based 501(c)(3) animal welfare charity. TAC does not have a shelter, but runs its adoption and assistance programs through a foster network. Proceeds from fundraisers like “Celebrating Unconditional Love” helps volunteers provide food, shelter, and veterinary care for animals.

Art by Richard Budman of Sandy Hook and Karen Kensek of Bethlehem will be featured at CUL. Additional artists, including at least one sculptor, may be added to the roster by that weekend, however.

The signature piece for the show is a 30-by-30-inch painting by Mr Budman, called “Suspicion.” It is done in the artist’s signature style of bright oranges, reds, and yellows, combining surrealist and contemporary styles that are instantly recognizable as Budman works.

Mr Budman, whose work has been presented in solo and group shows across the country, is also the author of two books. He self-published Dapper Dogs and Classy Cats and The World’s Oldest Cat Blows the Whistle (A Sizzling Expose!), each of which contained full color prints of Mr Budman’s art.

He has done fundraising in the past for Newtown, Monroe, and Easton animal pounds; ROAR, Ridgefield’s nonprofit, all volunteer animal welfare organization; and even branched out in 2009 to do a benefit exhibition for the Connecticut chapter of The Alzheimer’s Association.

Now his focus is back on the animals, especially those being cared for by The Animal Center.

“I like dogs better than people,” he says of his inclination to create so many canine paintings. “They definitely make better friends.”

Mrs Kensek, meanwhile, “is the world’s greatest poultry portrait painter,” says Mr Budman. Mrs Kensek is a partner/co-owner of Koenig Art Emporium in Southbury. She spends much of her free time painting, with a very strong focus on the chickens and goats that call the property she and her husband own their home.

All of the works to be featured in “Celebrating Unconditional Love,” or CUL (which Mr Budman says should be pronounced “cool”), will highlight animals.

“All of the art will be animal oriented,” said Mr Budman, who is helping to organize CUL. “And every piece will be upbeat. We’re looking for good feelings about adoption. This is not a downer show. [Animals] do us a favor by coming into our homes.

“There will be no downtrodden images,” he said. “People don’t want to bring sorrow into their homes.”

Karen Kensek’s art is the perfect complement to that kind of thinking.

“My artistic style is fun,” she said this week. “I only paint things that make me smile: chickens, goats, dogs, cats. I call myself a POPP — painter of poultry portraits. Just saying it makes me smile.”

Mrs Kensek’s current medium is acrylic, but her favorite is gouache, a medium that “is more durable and covers more ground affordably,” she explained. Good thing, too, because the chickens she and her husband adopted two years ago caught her artistic eye right from the start.

“I found their faces funny,” she said. “One day I was taking pictures of them and one, Daisy, poked her head into the camera. I snapped a picture, it made me laugh, and I thought ‘What if I painted this as a formal portrait?’

“So I did, and it still makes me laugh,” said Mrs Kensek, who does not have much formal training but instead relies on speaking with the customers and fellow artists who have visited Koenig’s during the past 20 years she has been there, as well as plenty of trial and error. “Paintings chickens is just plain fun for me. And fun is a good thing.”

Artists Still Sought

According to The Animal Center’s website this week, Connecticut artists are still invited to participate.

There is no prospectus, and the guidelines are pretty simple: The theme of this festival is celebrating the unconditional love, happiness, and joy that animals bring to our lives. There is no fee to participate.

To show your work, contact Richard Budman at 203-270-3779

Volunteers for the festival itself are also being sought. Contact The Animal Center for details about that, at 203-270-0228 or www.TheAnimalCenter.org.