About the Artist


 

Cathy Seay is the artist and owner of SeayArts Communicatons.

Cathy was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She attended Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia where she received a degree in Fine Arts with a Minor in Art History.

In addition to being a professional artist, she has spent more than 35 years as a creative director for advertising and marketing companies, creating marketing promotions and brand identities that acquire and retain customer brand loyalty. During her professional career, Cathy has had the good fortune of being able to combine and employ her interest in imaging and painting for both business and pleasure.  

Her preferred art mediums include acrylic, oil and digital illustration. Her style is illustrative realism that can evoke a variety of interpretations.  

Many of paintings include her muse, Little Dedo, as a symbol of love and protection for the images within the painting and to inspire creative thought within each of us. According to legend, Dedo was carved by a nun at the time when Notre Dame Cathedral was being constructed. The story goes that the nun disliked the custom of evil-looking, scary gargoyles that were placed at the top of cathedrals to protect the great buildings by warding off evil spirits. 

The nun disguised herself as a workman, sneaked into the construction site and carved a strange and lovable creature with large, pointed ears from a block of stone. She placed the statue in an obscure upper roof of Notre Dame and returned to her convent. There the gargoyle statue remained, unnoticed for centuries until one day, when a small boy, who became lost in the labyrinthine structure, fell and rolled down the upper roof. The boy was caught by the smallest statue, saving his life. From that time on, the statue became affectionately known as Little Dedo, the gargoyle of protection with the crossed toes.

A great lover of animals, a portion of her time is spent on promoting animal welfare and 10% of the proceeds from her animal portraits are donated to animal protection organizations. In her animal portraits, Little Dedo is added as a symbol of protection and love for eacn animal within the painting.

Cathy believes that the beauty of art is that people relate to the same piece of art in very different, individual ways, "Painting and viewing art is like meditation in that it can soothe the mind and energize the spirit at the same time."





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