Cathy Carey Art Studio and Garden Tour to benefit Shelter to Soldier™

Enjoy the beautiful drought tolerant succulent garden, with many imaginative groupings of plants, succulent wine bottle garden, and sculptures by other local artists. The one acre property high on a hill, overlooks Lake Hodges and surrounding inland areas. Enjoy the view of Lake Hodges as you stroll the garden.

The style of Cathy Carey’s paintings is a blend of impressionist brush strokes, vivid expressive color and symbolic images that impart a sense of emotion and mood. “I love animals. Through knowing my dogs I came to realize and believe that all animals have the same feelings and moods as we do. They are soul spirits in different bodies.”  Her paintings present colorful slices of life using local and exotic locales. Cathy’s current series is of wildlife; owls, quail, coyotes, and foxes, many of which she has seen in her garden. “I love working with native animals in the area, we are all part of the interdependent pattern of our shared coexistence.”  For Cathy Carey, art is a communication. “I feel it is my mission in life to bring happiness and joy through my art to as many people as I can. I add something of my soul to every painting, so that when someone looks at my artwork long after I’m dead, some enmeshed part of my spirit is gazing back, saying “be of good cheer”. I am communicating through my work that we are all connected through beauty and love. By supporting organizations that help animals and especially my beloved Goldens, I feel I am giving back to the source of so much of my inspiration. I love the mission of “Shelter to Soldier™”, they really are saving two lives with every adoption.” 

A favorite from year to year is the hand made Painted Jewelry Collection Carey makes, based on her paintings. She fires and shapes the pieces into one of a kind earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

Shelter to Soldier™ is a CA 501c3 nonprofit organization that rescues dogs from local shelters and trains them to become psychiatric service dogs for post-9/11 combat veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress (PTS), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and other injuries associated with traumatic service experiences. We are located here in San Diego, and accept veteran applications from the Southern California area, with preference to San Diego residents because of the intensive handler training program of 3-5 months that requires the veterans to be in close proximity to our training location. The dogs we adopt are carefully evaluated in the shelters, and once adopted, embark on a 12-18 month service dog training program with our team of expert trainers. Once they have completed all service dog tasks and all training hours in public, we match them with a veteran from our waiting list. From there, they begin a 3-5 month intensive handler training program, where the veteran handler learns all about his/her service dog’s tasks, and how to handle a service dog in public settings. The pair graduate together as a team when they pass their final examinations and are ready to work independently together.

Cathy Carey is the proud Mom to the beautiful rescued Golden Kira, and Golden Yogi and Sonny a Cocker Spaniel she rescued from the desert. She is also an award winning Escondido artist, who was born in Washington, DC. and educated at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC. She received a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Cathy has won numerous awards and her paintings are in many private collections including Larry Page of Google and J. Craig Venter of the Venter Institute in La Jolla.  She has exhibited her paintings in galleries in Virginia, New Mexico and California, and regularly shows in the Escondido Municipal Gallery and had a one person show at Arroyo Gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe in 2013. Her paintings are currently represented at La Playa Gallery in La Jolla, in New Mexico at: The Ranch at Taos Gallery, and  InArt Gallery and in Virginia at Chasen Galleries.