About the Artist
Vanessa Giddens has been creating portraits in graphite, charcoal, and
pastel since she was a young girl.  Vanessa studied art in high school and
at the Governor's Honors Program, but put her 2D work aside to study
theatre in college.  After college Vanessa went to school to become a
professional dog trainer and only after training for a few years did she
begin to incorporate her passion for art into her new career path.
Vanessa currently lives in High Point, North Carolina with her husband Charles, their
young son Parker, and a German Shepherd named Boss.  When she's not working
on portraits, Vanessa is often training dogs, formulating
Vanessa's Dog Shampoo, doing K9 Kinaesthetics bodywork, playing with Parker,
running, studying martial arts, and being a wife and mom.
Dogs are not our whole life, but they
make our lives whole.
                          -Roger Caras