Our Story

Since 2014, Saginaw-Chippewa artist Anthony Pego has been painting animals as people, it started with a midterms project painting US politicians as cats. After teaching paintings classes with Wine & Palette in Oklahoma City for almost a decade, including pets classes, Anthony asked friends if they had any interest in anthropomorphizing their furry loved ones, and the response was immediate and encouraging. The examples on the front page of this website show those very first furry customers, along with the artistic choices of their owners.

My Process:

Each painting is sketched first on archival quality watercolor paper, painted in mixed mediums, primarily gouache (a type of watercolor used in Mad Men era advertisements), inked with archival graphic pens, and adhered to wood canvas with handmade wheat paste glue. This process combines my favorite tools and mediums from various visual arts I admired and have studied throughout my career. The wood canvas are varying size, usually about 14 inches max in height and width, with a minimum width or height of about 8 inches, depending on the orientation of the canvas and subject. I sketch my subjects usually primarily from one photo, provided by the customer in email, but I highly recommend more than one photo so I can get a feel for the pet’s personality.

What I need from you:

What I require is a high quality photo of your pet with the face clearly visible, in the orientation you want it in the painting, preferably with at least part of the torso (chest/front arms) also visible. What works best is a handful of photos from different angles, these are often just people’s favorite photos of their pets. Screenshots from social media are acceptable as long as they’re of decent quality. I also need to know if you want your pet painted as a person, or as having an occupation, as having lived in some time period, etc. You could leave it up to me, but that might mean I turn your pet into a dinosaur of my liking or some such thing! It works out better if you give me some ideas of what you’d enjoy. Just click on the Order/Shop button, follow the instructions, and I’ll let you know when I’ve started painting! The turnout time from order to delivery is usually around a week, sometimes a bit longer during busy periods and holidays. Either way I’ll let you know what to expect for the turnaround.

More about Anthony Pego:

I have been a painter since 1997, as well as dabbling in jewelry, wood furniture, photography, graphic design, and short film making. I studied oil painting, print making, and graphic design in Austin Texas, New Orleans, San Diego, and now have returned to my hometown of Oklahoma City to participate and enjoy the exploding and very supportive art scene here. I currently still work as a teaching artist for Wine & Palette, am married to my amazing wife Amber, an artist and pastry chef herself, and we share the love of 3 amazing dogs, Mucky, Oshki, and Echo. You can find examples of my work from my various interests sprinkled throughout my Instagram page: @booscience -

Thank you for visiting, and I look forward to painting your pets!

Anthony P Pego (@booscience)