Huntington artist reimagines vintage photographs

The cat looks ready for a high Victorian tea with chapeau and high-necked dress. A bull stands on two legs garbed in a 19th century football uniform.

Just some examples of the antique animal photos on exhibit at the Briggs Lawrence Library in Ironton by J.Bird Cremeans.

“I am into vintage photography and cameras and postcards,” Cremeans said.

By using Photoshop, the Huntington-based artist takes photographs of people’s pets and attaches them onto vintage postcards. Inspiration came from a series of early 1900s photographs where kittens were dressed up in clothes of the era.

“It was funny and hilarious,” she said. “But I didn’t want to dress up a cat. So I thought, I am going to see what I can do with Photoshop.”

A graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Cremeans has been involved in art since childhood. Now she searches for her old photographs in antique stores or have fans give her some.

“People will give them to me because they don’t want to throw them away,” she said.

Her goal is to create works that appeal to others’ sense of humor, she said.

“That is what I want,” Cremeans said. “I want my goal audience to find it humorous.”