Drawn Home is a mixed-media portrait and storytelling project by Stanislaus County artist Laura Perrone, created with support from her 2026 KDA Individual Artists Fellowship.
Stories are being gathered from adopters, fosters, volunteers, shelter workers, rescue advocates, and community members who have played a part in helping an animal find safety, connection, or home.
Selected stories will be paired with handmade mixed-media animal portraits, creating a collection that celebrates both the animals and the often-unseen network of people behind their journeys.
Submissions are due by October 10, 2026. Selected participants will be contacted via email by November 1, 2026.
Project Purpose
Rescue stories often reach us in fragments: an intake photo, a social post, an adoption listing, a statistic.
Drawn Home creates space for a richer story.
By pairing first-hand narrative with handmade mixed-media portraiture, the project centers each animal as an individual with a personality, history, and life beyond the circumstances that first brought them into rescue.
Across many stories, Drawn Home will also document the people, care, and community connections that help animals find home, creating a local record of rescue that is personal, collaborative, and rooted in Stanislaus County.
How it works
1. Rescue stories are shared
Adopters, fosters, volunteers, rescue workers, advocates, transporters, and other community members are invited to share first-hand rescue stories with a meaningful connection to Stanislaus County. No writing experience is required. Participation is free.
2. Stories are selected for the project
Laura will review submissions and select a group of stories to develop as part of Drawn Home. Selected participants may be asked to share photographs, additional details, or take part in a short conversation about their experience.
3. Each story becomes an original portrait + narrative
Laura will create a handmade mixed-media portrait of the animal and develop a written narrative drawn from the participant's first-hand account.
4. The stories come together as Drawn Home
The individual portraits and narratives will become part of a larger body of work celebrating rescue animals, the people who help them along the way, and the joy of becoming family. The completed project will be shared through a digital gallery and public presentation.