A little over a year ago, Kat Swan picked up a paintbrush for the first time outside of a paint-and-sip class, driven by grief after her father’s death.

Since then, she’s channeled her art into portraits of shelter dogs at Pima Animal Care Center, hoping to give long-term residents a better chance at finding a home.

Swan moved to Tucson about nine years ago, after growing up in Michigan.

In August 2023, her father died from brain cancer. Nine months later, her family held a memorial in Holderness, New Hampshire, in a chapel called Church Island, located on Chocorua Island in Squam Lake.

“Something about the landscape felt like I needed to paint (it),” Swan told Tucson Spotlight.

That moment marked the beginning of a life-changing artistic journey, and the first time Swan felt herself begin to heal.

“I didn’t find peace exactly, but I did find silence in each drop of paint,” Swan wrote in an Instagram post commemorating her journey.

She spent months searching for her style and for subjects she felt were deserving of space on a canvas.

Then, in January, Swan’s dog Mira died a day before her late father’s birthday. She immediately knew she needed to honor the love she had for her longtime companion by painting a portrait.

“I still haven't finished her portrait,” Swan said of Mira.

But through the act of painting her beloved pet, she found her inspiration.

“There was something so fulfilling about knowing the love I felt for my dog and other people felt, as well, for dogs,” she said. “I knew these animals needed to take up space. That translated to me that they needed to be on a canvas.”

Swan reached out to Pima Animal Care Center and asked if she could paint portraits of some of the shelter’s long-term residents.

Adding to the sense of fulfillment she felt by painting the dogs was the opportunity to display their portraits inside Cartel Roasting Co.'s downtown location, and after that, Sonoran House in midtown.

"Someone saw my reel for a portrait I was doing and the dog was a day before 300 days at PACC and said they immediately had to go adopt him,” Swan said.

With more than 500 dogs in the shelter and PACC now having to resort to euthanizing healthy dogs due to overcrowding, Swan said it’s especially important to bring attention to long-stay dogs in order to save their lives.

As of last week, PACC was at critical capacity.

While PACC has kept her plenty busy, Swan is also using her talents to support other dogs around the country.

She recently traveled to the Animal Charity of Ohio to meet and paint a dog named Onyx, who has been at the shelter for almost seven years.

Swan’s art has gained traction on social media in recent months. She quit her job at Raytheon and moved into a field that gave her more free time to paint.

“This has become my full thing, but unfortunately it hasn't become enough where it can be my full salary where I could quit (my current job),” she said. “I'm hopeful it's on that trajectory.”

In the meantime, she plans to continue showcasing her portraits of adoptable dogs and is taking commissions from pet owners through her Instagram account.

Although she has only painted dogs, Swan said she “would 100% try other animals.”

Macy Hernandez is a journalism and business administration major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at macyhernandez@arizona.edu.

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