bmore Magazine features Popkin's Pet Portraits

Popkin's Pet Portraits and Damn Good Doormast were featured in this months bmore Magazine!

bmore Magazine

Innovation & Job News

Artist Spoon Popkin Turns Creativity Into Success

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

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Arts and Culture, Entrepreneurship  

Baltimore Artist Spoon Popkin is using her unique perspective on pets and people to create businesses that allow her to pursue her creative passions. Her two endeavors, Popkin's Pet Portraits and Damn Good Doormats, were inspired by her own circumstances, and have allowed the artist to flex her creative muscles while capitalizing on two things that appeal to the consumer market: homes and pets.

"I've been painting my own animals since 1988 for fun. Around 2005 a friend asked me to paint her kitty and I loved it. She was ecstatic and it was a great change from painting humans. Another friend requested a portrait, then another and before I knew it I was in business," Popkin says.

Popkin paints her pet portraits either on-site in the customer's home or through photographs of the client's pet. In addition to using traditional painting styles, the artist also does pet portraits using Japanese sumi ink. Popkin has painted pet portraits for several celebrities, including Jeff Lewis of Bravo TV's "Flipping Out" and Nicole Hollander, author and creator of the syndicated cartoon "Sylvia".

Popkin was inspired to start Damn Good Doormats after a search for a doormat for her newly purchased home turned up too many impersonal examples. Damn Good Doormats offers a variety of pop culture and meme-related doormats.

"I make custom and original doormats to order. I [also] have over 40 designs in stock. Some of the most popular mats are 'The Honey Badger Don't Care', 'The Pride of Baltimore', 'Keys Wallet Cell Phone', Bigfoot, various dogs, cats, and wood grain," Popkin continues.


Writer: Amy McNeal
Source: Spoon Popkin