Ron Burns  
Artist
Scottsdale, Arizona

How long have you been working in your current career? What did you do before? 
I have been working as an artist since 1993.  Prior to that time, I founded my own graphic design company, Ron Burns Design, in Los Angeles, CA.

Why did you decide to pursue this career?  
Because the demands of a non-stop 25-hour-a-day approach to living and working grew less fulfilling.

What traits would you say make your job “humane”?
My painting career began with originals of my own pets who were adopted from shelters.  I ran out of subjects and began to tour shelters throughout the United States and began to paint them as I imagined them.  I was named the Artist-In-Residence of The Humane Society of the United States in 2000 and am proud to still be their representative.

What kind of education and training did you get before you started your first professional job? 
I graduated from Ohio State University with a B.S. degree in Industrial Design with an emphasis in Visual Communications.  I am a self-taught artist, however.

How did you find your first job in your profession?
After graduating from Ohio State University, I packed up the car and along with my high school sweetheart and continued companion, I headed to southern California.  Once there I read the classifieds, interviewed, and got the job with an Industrial Design Firm in Beverly Hills as a designer.  A year later, I was promoted to the manager of the graphic design department.

What are your duties in your current position? 
I am the artist and the business owner.  It is not only my responsibility to ensure I have enough paintings and limited editions of my art, I must also make sure that the business end of things is a tightly run ship.

What do you like most about your job? 
Getting to know the animals.  They have such tremendous spirits and unconditional love.  It’s fuel for my soul!  I also have great two-legged animals that I work with and greatly appreciate.

What do you like least about your job? 
Knowing that a majority of them will not get adopted – the 4-legged ones that is.

What’s a typical workday like for you? 
I first make sure the business end of things is in good working order and then I indulge myself by painting.

What types of training or experiences do you need to keep up-to-date in your field?
Probably by reading the trade publications in my field, attending Art Expos, staying familiar with the high-tech, computer-end of the business, and knowing what changes are being made in the art world in terms of reproducing art.  Aligning with various non-profit charity organizations and listening to their needs and proposing options that might work for them as it relates to my art profession.

What keeps you motivated to keep doing your work? 
The animals, the animals, the animals.  Also, the heartwarming response I receive from happy customers who purchase my work.

What personal traits do you think someone needs to be successful in your field? 
Compassion and the letting go of Self.  Allowing yourself to get in over your head and then doing your best to keep all the plates spinning on those long pointy sticks.

What advice would you give to a college student or other young person considering entering your field?  What advice would you give to someone who’s changing fields and is interested in a career in your profession?
Be willing to dedicate your life to what you believe in.  Someone once told me “You can rest when you’re dead.”  A bit morbid perhaps – but there’s a lot of truth to it.  Try and gain as much experience as possible in as many different areas as possible, but focus the majority of your efforts on just one or only a few.

Anything else you’d like to add about your work or about careers helping animals?
I like to think of life as a circle.  Find out what you like to do, then how to do it, how to be successful at it and then how to give back to those entities that made you successful – that completes the cycle.

July 2005