About the Affectionate Animal Series
Each painting in this series is based on a vintage photograph of real people.
While all types of love are represented—familial love between siblings, romantic love between partners, the platonic love that sustains meaningful friendships— it is important to note that I feature same sex couples in an effort to commemorate how queer love survives and LGBT+ couples have existed throughout history.
Too often people have tried to erase the stories of gay men or fix lesbian women or campaign like transgender people shouldn’t exist. This series is a visual reminder that queer love not only exists, it is timeless.
Queer love is wholesome. It is tender. It is something to be treasured and celebrated.
The more we see images of same sex relationships, the less afraid we will be to express other forms of connection: the love between brothers, between neighbors, between friends.
We have survived countless odds, and the people we love along the way are what make our lives meaningful. It is important to cultivate moments of affection in light of that.
I invite you to peek behind my curtain of watercolor and ink illustration to encounter the source images that inspired each of the paintings in this series.
Ordering the Affectionate Animal Series
You can purchase this series in my shop! Click on my shop link to browse the listings, or find the design you want below and click on it to go directly to the listing for that item.
Each listing has archival fine art prints and note cards available. There are 10 illustrations available as stickers, as well!
Wholesaling the Affectionate Animal Series
If you are a wholesaler who would like to carry this series in your shop, check out my wholesale catalogue.
♡ Erin Darling
Quick Links | Bluebirds | Cats | Chickens | Chipmunks | Cows | Crows | Deer | Dogs | Foxes | Frogs | Giraffes | Hedgehogs | Lions | Ocelots | Octopus | Otters | Polar Bears | Rabbits | Raccoons | Red Pandas | Seagulls | Skunks | Sloths | Snow Leopards | Zebras
Bluebirds
College students, Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College, used with permission. [ click here to shop this design ]
Cats
Nusch Éluard and Sonia Mossé. Paris. 1935 Photographer: Man Ray. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Chickens
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Chipmunks
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Cows
An Irish couple by Catherine Ursillo. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Crows
Source: Sam Cooke 1965 Photographic Print by William Lanier, via pinterest. [ click here to shop this design ]
Deer
[ click here to shop this design ]
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Dogs
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Foxes
Photograph by Thurston Hopkins, Tango in the East End, London, 1954. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Frogs
Photograph from a collection called “Hidden in the Open,” curated by Trent Kelley. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Giraffes
“Tough Threads.” Ken Russell photographed Teddy Girls in London -1950s. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Hedgehogs
Chuck Rowland & Harry Hay (Apr. 7, 1912 – Oct. 24, 2002), 1983. © Stephen Stewart, via @onearchives. Harry Hay was the visionary behind the queer liberation movement in the U.S. With his background in leftist politics, Hay merged the revolutionary idea of homosexuals as an “oppressed cultural minority” with the fundamentals of organizing. (verbiage by lgbt_history… read more here). [ click here to shop this design ]
Lions
[ click here to shop this design ]
Ocelots
Photograph by Romualdo Garcia. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Octopus
Circa 1970 by Donna Gottschalk. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Otters
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Polar Bears
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Rabbits
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Raccoons
Photographed by Kay Tobin, circa 1977. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Red Pandas
Mariana Romo Carmona and June Chan (b. June 6, 1956), New York City, 1988. Photo © Robert Giard Foundation. (read more about these activists here)
Seagulls
Skunks
Photograph from the etsy shop The Vintage Image Boutique. [ click here to shop this design ]
Sloths
Castro Street Fair, San Francisco, California, August 17, 1980. Photo © Paul Fusco. (read more about this street fair here) [ click here to shop this design ]
Snow Leopards
Gay Pride Day, NYC 1980 / © Stanley Stellar. [ click here to shop this design ]
Zebras
Lord Alfred Douglas & Oscar Wilde. Source for image. [ click here to shop this design ]
Ordering the Affectionate Animal Series
You can purchase this series in my shop! Click on my shop link to browse the listings, or find the design you want above and click on it to go directly to the listing for that item.
Each listing has archival fine art prints and note cards available. There are 10 illustrations available as stickers, as well!
Wholesaling the Affectionate Animal Series
If you are a wholesaler who would like to carry this series in your shop, check out my wholesale catalogue.
♡ Erin Darling