A Far Side Gallery

Artist Michael Sullivan has almost finished his version of Grant Wood’s American Gothic, but the farmer holds a pooper scooper instead of a pitchfork. That’s fitting since [the farmer and his wife aren’t people, but cats.

At the Oak Cliff Animal Shelter, Sullivan (above) and other artists have created a “Canine ana Feline Art Museum” with paintings of dogs and cats viewing art work. Other than the Wood piece, he painted a Picasso-style Woman Sealed with Spotted Dot and a Warholian multiple image, featuring a glamorous golden retriever instead of Marilyn Monroe, His masterpiece at the end of the small gallery is the Bona Usa. The mysterious, sad smile is there, but it’s on the face of a King Charles spaniel.

The driving force behind the project was Tawana Couch-Jurek, a member of the city’s animal shelter advisory board who thought the shelter’s dingy walls and peeling paint weren’t conducive to adopting animals. “It was scary,” she said. “It was so depressing, you didn’t want to walk in.”

Jurek also solicited the help of 11 Hispanic teen-agers from the Phoenix Project’s art program to decorate the dog pens where dogs wait to be adopted. Murals offish, space cats, panda bears and birds now cover the once dreary walls. One student painted a dog and cat with their backs turned. A caption read, “Adopt us and we’ll turn around.” Since the city’s two animal shelters destroyed all but 6.000 of the 36,000 animals taken in last year, the homeless pets need all the help they can get.