When Leiann Klein adopted her Australian shepherd, Jasmine, in 2014, she had no idea how much it would affect her career as an artist.
From 2008-14, Klein took a hiatus from painting. The first thing she painted in 2014 was a portrait of Jasmine. Since then, Klein has raised nearly $12,000 to help homeless pets in and around Montgomery County by painting the pets of clients.
“[Jasmine] really awoke something in me that had been dormant for quite some time,” Klein said. “From 2008-14, I never picked up a paintbrush. When I did, I painted Jasmine, and that’s when this all happened. I don’t think I’m going to be giving it up anytime soon.”
Before taking a break from art, Klein had her own business painting murals in New York City restaurants and commercial construction companies.
“In 2008, when the market crashed and people were losing their businesses and homes, clearly they were not paying me to paint murals,” Klein said. “My business went from being quite viable to zero, and I had just had a baby girl. While that was super positive, I kind of felt a little lost as to where I was going in life.”
Klein, a New York City native, began painting in high school. From there, she went on to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology for illustration, and she received her masters degree from New York University.
Before moving to The Woodlands in 2012, Klein taught art to at-risk students for eight years. Aside from painting murals, she would also create window displays, illustrate books and take on any other projects she could handle.
“I used to be an art educator in New York City, and I kind of wanted to retire from that,” Klein said. “I just started doing my own thing, but I’ve really enjoyed meeting a lot of people since moving to Texas. A lot of folks have asked me if I could teach them how to do this.”
As a four-year member of The Woodlands Art League, Klein said she has not taught any classes yet, but hopes to in the future. As a full-time artist, she stays busy, especially during the holidays when she gets most of her requests for pet portraits.
“These are all peoples’ pets,” Klein said. “I don’t just say, ‘Today I’m going to paint a boxer.’ These are all commissioned pieces. They are all created from photographs that the customer emails me. I can really work with anyone, anywhere.”
In 2014, Klein launched the “30 Dogs in 30 Days” campaign, which raised $5,000 for Operation Pets Alive. She painted one dog portrait each day for 30 days, and when she sold them, she donated a portion back to help homeless pets.
“I just realized that I was kind of burned out on the commercial side of doing art work as far as working with large corporations,” Klein said. “I wanted to give back to the community.”
Klein encourages people to learn how to be an artist because as long as it is something that is enjoyable, it will not be too hard to pick up, she said.
“I get the most fulfillment out of this because I feel this was a really great way to use my talents to help others instead of just being a means of making money,” Klein said.
