Have you noticed something different at the Spanish Village Art Center? It’s looking a lot more colorful.
It all started with a woman, a paintbrush and a way to cope with losing her dog, Shilo.
Amanda Moschella’s pit bull, Shiloh, was by her side for 16 years.
Toward the end of her life, Shiloh’s health became more difficult.
She underwent spinal surgery, ACL surgery and battled cancer five separate times.
“Cancer didn't take her out,” Amanda says. “She was a warrior.”
The two had their routine at Balboa Park, walking, stopping by Spanish Village, and visiting their favorite coffee cart.
“We would kind of sit under the tree and that's where she would kind of people watch and allow us to kind of have our coffee for the morning.”
When Shilo passed, Amanda wanted to give something back to a place that had given them so many memories. So she picked up a paintbrush.
“I decided to volunteer our time and what started off as just a volunteer project for us dealing with grief, um, turned into an opportunity to invite others who were kind of processing the same thing.”
Amanda put the invitation on social media: “Let’s create something beautiful together, one tile at a time.” She shared on instagram.
It went viral, and soon, people showed up, bringing their own stories with them.
“I lost my sister. It was an anniversary [of her death],” Julie Ann San Juan, says “I also lost my two dogs last year when she posted this… it's amazing. The opportunity arose at the perfect time.”
“This is actually my first time seeing it in the daylight and I was like truly floored,” Nina Lewis, another resident who came out to paint says. “It looks so incredible.”
Amanda is working to create a foundation to financially support families with senior pets and create more spaces like this, where people can come together to grieve.
“There's not really a lot of opportunities for that,” Amanda says.
Shilo had a way of bringing people together while she was here.
“As people who might be a little bit more introverted and a little bit more to ourselves, she opened us up to so many beautiful people,” Amanda says.
Now, she’s finding a way to keep doing that, even after she’s gone.
“I'm really lucky that I got to be in her life and that she's kind of brought so much to other people.”
