Meet Pam Cofre! She is a local Skokie artist you should get to know.

The world is circular in more ways than one. As my story unfolds, I think you will see that! As many of you know, I am a committed and avid recylcer. I have had a compost pile since I was 9 and I even won a prize for recycling the first year that Lincolnwood began to divide out the recyclables from the trash. In keeping with that, I am also a huge devotee of Freecycle (http://freecycle.org/) as well as the new offshoot known as: Reuseit (http://www.reuseitnetwork.org/). Both of these organizations are dedicated to keeping usable items out of the landfills by people posting items wanted and offered to others in the group who can have them free of charge. Please check them out and join. It is one small step in saving the planet. If you want to know anything about it, drop me a line and I will be happy to tell you more.

The other day as I was reading my email, a member of the group requested and and all picture frames. Since I had some laying around the garage looking for a home, this was a perfect opportunity to rehome them. The recipient of the frames was Pam Cofre. Not only was she delightful but it turns out that she is a local artist right here in Skokie.

Curious I headed over to her website and checked out what she did, http://www.cactus9.com/ . You will see all kinds of great things from portraits of mothers with their children to a portrait of Algebra the cat. Not only is she good, but Pam guarantees that if you are not pleased with her work she will refund your money back to you! She has 22 years of experience behind her and clearly a lot of passion about what she does.

I asked Pam to send along some samples of her work. Since this is an animal blog, we included several but you will also see on her website that her scope of work is far more extensive. So if you are interested in a portrait of Aunt Mary as well as your ferret, then Pam is your gal. Her work is fabulous and her word stands behind her work. You can't get better than that. Besides with the holidays around the corner, you might just have found the prefect gift! Enjoy!

Oh, yes, and don't forget to recycle and join Freecycle and Reuseit! Remember that whenever you empty out a space you make room for something new to take its place! So it is true as I have now met my new friend, Pam. Yes, the world is circular in more ways than one!