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SAN DIEGO, Dec 26, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A San Diego man says the point of his business is to help people remember deceased pets by turning the animals' ashes into art.
Danny Ortega, a former mortician's assistant turned sculptor and painter, said he takes the biography of the pet into consideration before painting a psychedelic pattern with a paste made from the pet's ashes and other materials, The Telegraph of London reported Tuesday.
"I know the love that you can have for a pet and the companionship they can give," he said. "It borders on the spiritual. And I feel I'm communing with the spirit of the animal as I'm working."
Ortega said the idea came to him while attending festivities for the Mexican Day of the Dead.
"I realized that instead of having a dead pet in an urn you can have a custom made piece of art," he said. "I'm an artist and I recycle everything around me. I decided that if the Egyptians can do embalming, why couldn't I do something with cremated remains?"
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
