James Bowshier and his wife walked into their local animal shelter to look at a puppy but another dog caught their attention.
Herbie, a 1-year-old pit bull mix, had a hand-drawn portrait hanging outside his kennel.
“They got every detail,” Bowshier said of the artist, who used colored pencils to create a vibrant sketch of Herbie.
Bowshier looked at the dog, who had been in the shelter for more than two months, and noticed Herbie’s striking resemblance to his childhood dog, Brownie.
The Bowshiers adopted Herbie, and the shelter gave them the portrait to take home. They then learned that it had been created by an inmate at the Franklin County Corrections Center in Columbus, Ohio.
“I thought it was really cool,” Bowshier said of the portrait, which now hangs on his refrigerator at home. “It’s very beautiful. I like how they even got the purple leash around his neck.”
Bowshier said the portrait struck a chord with him because his uncle spent years in jail, and helped train dogs while incarcerated. After his release, his uncle became a dog trainer.
“He turned his life completely around,” Bowshier said.
Herbie is one of 18 overlooked dogs adopted so far from Franklin County Dog Shelter & Adoption Center after inmates at the county jail drew their portraits.
Many of the dogs had spent 30 days to a year at the shelter, said shelter director Kaye Persinger. The portraits, she said, made potential adopters pause and take a closer look.
“They develop an interest,” she said. “They want to get to know the dog a little bit better.”
The program, called Portraits with a Purpose, started about two months ago. It was the idea of a social worker at the jail, who noticed that many inmates were artistically inclined.
“They are constantly drawing, doodling, making portraits, coloring things,” said Griffin Bluestone, the jail administrator. “They’ll make portraits of family members, each other.”
The shelter and the jail have partnered for various programs over the past 15 years.
“We’ve taken inmates there in the past … to walk the dogs, bathe the dogs, do laundry, help clean up around there,” Bluestone said. “This just seemed like a natural evolution of our partnership with the shelter.”
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The shelter provides the inmates with photos of overlooked dogs, and they choose which ones to draw. They use pencil — some opt for color while others keep their portraits black and white — and each one takes anywhere from a day to more than a week to complete.
“The pictures are so good, they look like photographs,” Persinger said. “It’s amazing.”
Each portrait is accompanied by a letter from the artist. Although the artist’s name is not on the artwork, they share a little about themselves and why they wanted to participate in the program.
When asked what inspired him to participate in the program, the inmate who drew Herbie wrote: “I saw that the dogs needed help and I’m trying to spend the rest of my life giving more than taking.”
There are currently six inmates in the program — one is a tattoo artist, and another has an art degree. Bluestone said the program is open to anyone at the jail, and they are trying to expand it to another correctional center in Franklin County.
Of the 20 portraits made by inmates, 18 dogs have been adopted. The inmates just finished an additional 30 portraits that will be hung at the shelter.
“Hopefully this just keeps growing,” Bluestone said. “The community has loved it, so it’s something we’re going to run with.”
Bluestone said the program has been rewarding for the inmates, especially when they find out a dog they’ve drawn is adopted.
“It reminds them that they can make a positive impact even when they’re in jail and we’re hoping they carry this forward once they get released,” he said.
Michael Grieco, 40, is one of the participating artists, and has completed two portraits of shelter dogs: Gracie and Lugnut.
In a statement to The Washington Post, Grieco said he chose Gracie because she was an older dog, and he was adopted as an older child. He said he felt like he connected with Gracie’s struggle.
He also chose Lugnut because “he looked like best friend material.”
Grieco said he plans to continue drawing shelter dogs.
“It provided me with an opportunity to help others while incarcerated,” he said. “I am a dog lover at heart, and I feel dogs are inherently innocent and this provides them a second chance at life.”
Persinger said she is impressed by the quality of the artwork — and how much it has drawn attention to overlooked dogs.
She said the shelter takes in 10,000 dogs a year, and many end up staying 12 months or more.
“I’m guaranteeing that with this program in place, we will not have a dog sit here that long because of the success we’ve had with it already,” she said. “It works. We’ve seen it.”
Persinger said she wants the inmates to know the impact they’re having.
“I hope they gain a sense of belonging,” she said.
That is how Jerico Cook felt on Oct. 10 when she and her boyfriend adopted Aries – a 3-year-old pit bull terrier who had been in the shelter for 125 days. Shelter staff gave them the portrait of Aries, whom they renamed Medusa.
“My eyes welled up with tears,” Cook said. “It was definitely moving to see it and have it.”
The portrait now hangs on their refrigerator. Cook said they have shown it to friends and told the story behind it. They are hoping to one day thank the artist.
“We just want to connect with whoever it was and let them know how much the picture means to us,” she said.
The post Inmates drew portraits of shelter dogs. Then the adoptions began. appeared first on Washington Post.
