The Animal Health Library in Wegner Hall has a history of welcoming artists to show their animal-themed creations. This semester they brought in Kyla Lakin and her colorful depictions of local shelter animals.

Kyla Lakin is a senior fine arts major with an emphasis in painting, a skill she puts to good use. Lakin has painted a variety of pictures, but she came into the arts program with an intense interest in animals, said Chris Watts, a painting and drawing professor.

“She’s very interested in animals, she really understands them, their anatomy, how to paint their fur,” Watts said. “She’s got a knack for painting dogs and cats in particular.”

All of the animals depicted in Lakin’s paintings are from the Palouse Humane Society. At the end of her freshman year, Lakin began to volunteer at the humane society and has continued to volunteer there every year since.

“I have a dog at home, and I missed him so I went to be around the animals,” Lakin said. “It helped me get my animal fix.”

Lakin based the paintings off photos of the shelter animals at the Humane Society, and each painting is sold for $80. Then, 80 percent of the income from each painting is donated to the humane society.

“I wanted to do more than just volunteer,” Lakin said. “So I decided to do some paintings to sell to raise money.”

The Library hosts a new artist’s work each semester, and the artists donate a painting to the library, which is kept on display year round. The painting Lakin donated depicts a colorful, purple cat leaning over an opened book.

One of Lakin’s favorite aspects of painting is to work with color. Lakin said she embraces odd, bright colors and makes them work with the piece.

“I love color, it’s so fun because you can match to color to the personality,” she said. “I like to play with how color shows personality.”

Lakin’s use of color is not limited to her work with animals. Unique colors are what link all of her pieces together.

“I love using unnatural colors because it makes you look at (the painting) in a different way,” she said.

A painting that stood out to Edward Odell, library and archives paraprofessional at the Animal Health Library, was a depiction of a Persian cat. The cat’s actual color is gray, but Lakin painted it a bright purple because that’s how she saw its personality, Odell said.

Fine arts students are encouraged to pursue different art media and focuses. Lakin embraced this completely, setting aside her love for painting animals and taking up other art forms and inspiration.

“I think she came here with animal painting as her skill,” Watts said. “She set it aside to expand her work.”

However, she was unable to stay away from painting critters, and after almost four years of diverse artwork, she maintained her interest in animal art, he said.

“When people come to the arts program they are encouraged to pursue other avenues,” Watts said. “Her interest in animals has stayed.”

The Animal Health Museum welcomes a variety of student artists, showing a different set of paintings or photographs each semester.

“Usually (the art) is animal themed,” Odell said. “We had a woman who did paintings of therapy dogs at nursing homes.”

Kyla Lakin’s paintings will be on display through the end of the semester in the Animal Health Library, room 170 in Wegner Hall. There will be a reception in the library today from 4:30 – 6 p.m. The reception and exhibit are free to attend.