GRAND LEDGE, Mich. — Pet owners love their pets. They are basically furry family members, and many pet lovers want to have memories of them that they can hold on to forever. Julia Doty is helping people in the community do just that in a creative way.
Art is something Doty has always adored.
“I was the one at Christmas that always got the little art sets,” said Doty.
She also has a love for animals that inspires her artwork.
“I’ve always had a dog. At any point in my life there was always a pet that I had," Doty said.
In March 2022, Julia went through a life changing event.
"I had a night out, you know, with my friends and stuff. There was like a little dinner that we had, and my chest started to feel super heavy like an elephant was sitting on it," Doty said.
The next morning her boyfriend took her to the hospital, and she found out what was wrong.
“I worked at a grow facility in South Lansing, and I was cleaning their building, and I used to be a barista, just doing like jobs here and there. But I had suffered a collapsed lung due to all the chemicals that were around me while I was cleaning," Doty said.
That experience led her to combining her two loves together.
“I took a little extra time off, and I tried, you know, just doing sketches to pass the time and things like that, and I painted my own pet," Doty said.
With advice from her boyfriend and the help of social media, her art popped off.
"Everybody was really interested in it and getting their pets done, which is how that snowballed into the company that I've had for a year now," Doty said.
She's now able to do what she loves full time.
With a stroke of a brush, watercolors and cold-press watercolor paper, Julia is able to create these special memories that last a lifetime.
"Whether they're here with you or not, it's something that you can just hold on to and cherish forever," Doty said. “I've painted mostly dogs, cats here and there. I've gotten to paint a snake, a hamster, some odd animals and horses and stuff, which is really cool.”
And so far, she's painted close 200 paintings within a year.
“It warms my heart because everybody loves them, and it's something that they can keep with them forever, and it just warms my heart knowing that they get to look at it all the time, and they're always going to be happy seeing their fur baby just in the cutest light," Doty said.
If you would like a forever memory of your fur baby, you can head to her website Creations By Julia Doty.
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