Former trial lawyer’s second career taking off thanks to pet portraits

By Austin Pollack

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) — How many pictures of your pet do you have in your phone?

It’s always a great keepsake, but what if there was a way to have that picture in a different form?

“Practiced law since 1985,” said John Cannon, sitting on a stool from his home studio in East Nashville.

Cannon spent more than 30 years as a trial lawyer.

“Practicing law was fun and exciting for a long time until it wasn’t,” he said.

Pet portraits became Cannon’s verdict.

“This is a lot more kinetic for me,” he said. “You know I worked real hard and kind of wound up accidentally specializing in the pet portraits because they’ve been very, very popular.”

Cannon got slammed with commission work at the end of 2023, which prompted him to do something he hadn’t really done before.

“For the first time ever, felt kind of burned out,” he said. “Take a month off and just try and do nothing. I didn’t touch the paint brush for a month. And then I found myself going — I’m ready to get back.”

“You suddenly find yourself in an airplane that loses cabin pressure,” he added. “The instructions are to put the mask on yourself first then help others around you.”

A native Nashvillian, people near and far have had Cannon paint portraits of their four-legged family.

“You know and I’ve had people cry at seeing the recreation of their pet,” he said.

People give Cannon a picture of their pet. He takes that and turns it into a beautiful piece of art.

“I don’t think of them as pets or animals, I think of them as family members,” Cannon added.

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