Mar 28, 2025 —
You have to be pretty creative to make a living in the North Country.
That’s definitely the case for Dave Globerson. He moved to Glens Falls during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s when he started his business – illustrating custom pet portraits.
“This all started during the shutdown,” Globerson remembered. “I was watching everybody lose so much, whether that be their jobs, their identities, loved ones, but people were really, really bonding with their animals.”
Globerson went to school for illustration, but had spent most of his career touring as a bass player and looking for a purpose with his artwork.
“What is it that I can make that's not just a monster or a dragon or something like that, but something that's really meaningful, that somebody can hang up in their house and look at and say, ‘I remember that.'”
Pet portraits checked that box.
Globerson does a lot of memorial paintings of pets that have passed. His favorite part is seeing people’s reactions to his work. There are lots of tears, and laughter, too.
He's found that cat people have the most creative ideas for their pet portraits.
“I've turned them into Jedi. I've turned them into anime characters. I'm about to paint two cats as wizards conjuring a spell.”
It’s a good business, he says, because most everyone loves their pets.
“Once I start saying that I paint pet portraits, people's eyes light up,” says Globerson.
Globerson’s other gig is beer.
He works for local businesses, like Whitman Brewing Co. in Saratoga Springs, designing the funky, eye-catching labels you see on craft beer.
He says it's a good creative challenge, and that with “each brewery, each label gives me my own creative outlet.”
He has his favorites; Globerson loves designs that involve darkness and monsters.
“I've been drawing monsters since I was basically able to hold a pencil,” he says. “Anything that's kind of monster-related or creature-related, I'm really excited about.”
Globerson has even merged his pet portrait work with the craft beer scene. He works with Lucky Puppy, an animal rescue that holds adoption events at local breweries.
Business has taken off this year, he says. He illustrated his first children’s book and had a solo show. There's been a snowball effect.
“I didn't realize that my art would end up being on beer cans, but here we are and making a living doing that.”
Running your own business isn’t all fun and games, he says.
“The hardest part is being my own boss because I run a loose ship.”
It's a process. He's been learning how to do accounting, and effective correspondence.
“It's getting better each day.”
For Globerson, Glens Falls is an uplifting place to be an artist. He says there's a culture of support for artists and resources for them.
“Working as an artist is no longer just seen as like, ‘Oh, that's cute.' It's like, ‘Oh, you're a real professional.' It kind of just inspires more creativity.”
It’s that supportive community that’s enabled Globerson to live out his dream of being an artist full time.
Major support for North Country at Work comes from the Cloudsplitter Foundation and the Prospect Hill Foundation.
Find scores of work stories and thousands of work photos at http://ncpr.org/work
