Cats and Dogs at the Gallery

By Dan Hilborn
Published March 16, 2005


When Pnina Granirer was just a young mother with two growing boys at home, she did her best to divide her time fairly between her children, her passion for art and the other important things in her life - like Caesar, the family cat.

But Caesar, who had been the subject of dozens of Granirer's drawings and paintings, had other ideas about the amount of time and attention he was receiving. And one day, the cat let that unhappiness be known in a very feline manner.

"He used to hate it when I was busy with something else," Granirer said recently. "Sometimes, he'd come into my studio and jump onto my lap and then with his paws, stop me from drawing anymore.

"But one day, I had a pen-and-ink drawing of him standing up against the wall while I was reading a story to my five-year-old son. Caesar walked in and sat close to the picture, and then looked me in the eye with a great intensity.

"When he walked away, the painting was wet - he had peed on it.

"I laughed so loud. I thought it was hilarious. I couldn't believe he would actually do this," Granirer said. "To this day, I still don't know if he knew it was an image of him or maybe he just saw it as one of those activities that kept my attention diverted from him."

Today, one of Granirer's most revered paintings of Caesar, a silkscreen print of an impressionist painting called Dreamscape, is one of the few professional pieces that is among the hundreds of drawings of cats and dogs on display at the Burnaby Art Gallery this month.

The Truth about Cats and Dogs: Portraits of Our Pets, on display until April 3, is one of the most ambitious community art projects ever undertaken by the Burnaby Art Gallery.

"A lot of people have a special attachment to their animals and we wanted to give them a space to express that," said Corinne Albers, a marketing assistant for the Shadbolt Centre.

Earlier this year, the Shadbolt put out the call for pictures, paintings, drawings and other images of cats and dogs for inclusion in this show. And the response was overwhelming.

"We have over 300 pieces submitted by the community," Albers said. "They range from people's working animals up to pampered pets that are all dressed up. We have a really impressive range of paintings, pastels and pencil-crayon drawings."

Every piece of work submitted to the show is on display in the Burnaby Art Gallery, formerly known as the Ceperley House, on the grounds of Deer Lake Park.

Granirer's work, taken from the City of Burnaby's permanent art collection, joins Jack Shadbolt's lithograph of Solid Citizen Cat as one of the few professional pieces in the exhibition

In addition to this show, Granirer recently presented her mixed media work Synchronicity at the Zack Gallery in Vancouver, and in January Bravo Channel aired a half-hour documentary, Pnina Granirer: Portrait of an Artist, that was produced by Burnaby resident Medhi Ali.

The opening reception for the Truth About Cats and Dogs was held last Saturday and had one of the most busiest afternoons at the art gallery in a long time. In addition to having officials from the Burnaby SPCA talk about their kids' clubs, puppies from the Burnaby- based Pacific Assistance Dog Society howled along to the music provided the Shadbolt Singers, said Albers.

The Burnaby Art Gallery is open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Tours are available for school groups and therre is a tour and tea program for adults. For more information, contact the Burnaby Art Gallery at 604- 205-7332.