PORT TOWNSEND — When Ainslie Pryor heard that her artists’ group was going to create shrines, she thought, “This is really serious.”
Then she thought, “I know exactly what I’m going to do.”
“I knew from that instant that my shrine would be about animals,” she said.
“That’s what sacred to me.”
Pryor is an animal lover who wrote and illustrated the “The Baby Blue Cat and the Dirty Dog Brothers” book series.
She’s also an artist who created “Beloved Companions,” a shrine marking the passing of animal friends, both her own and other pet owners’.
“I wanted to give people a place where they could reflect for a moment on how much their pets meant,” Pryor said.
Pryor’s shrine is one of eight on display now through December at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave., Port Townsend.
They were created by members of Art Dialogue, a group that has been meeting monthly for a year.
Each month, the group takes on a different project designed to encourage exploration and communication.
The idea of borrowing the concept of religious shrines to create personal expression of the sacred came out of group discussion, according to member Linda Okazaki.
“When we decide to work on new ideas, we brainstorm,” Okazaki said.