The Racine Art Museum, Photography and Pet Sitting: The Varied Career of Jessica Zalewski

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Jessica Zalewski has done a lot in her career, including several years at Racine Art Museum (RAM), work as a wonderful photographer and what can be considered “professional pet sitting.

Tell us about your career at Racine Art Museum. What was your role there?

I started at RAM in June 2003, a month after the downtown location of the two/campus Racine Art Museum opened. To start with, I worked in marketing, public relations, and graphic design. For 19 years, I was responsible for all the published materials—brochures, catalogs, postcards—and advertising design. Given the timeline of my career there, I also launched social media for the museum. Community outreach became a natural outgrowth of my role in public relations. 

Collaborating with other art organizations in Southeastern Wisconsin became one of my favorite parts of my job at RAM. I had the opportunity to work with a creative team of artists and art advocates to orchestrate the annual Get Behind the Arts Studio Tour in Racine and Kenosha for nine years, and served as a founding member of ArtRoot, a collaborative team committed to reinvigorating Racine through art. I am grateful to have become very invested in the art communities in Racine and Kenosha, and to connect them to my home community of Milwaukee.

Did you study art and photography, and how did that role come about?

I have had a life-long interest in photography sparked my dad’s devotion to making beautiful images. As a child I was a frequent subject and was magnetically attracted to making my own photographs. I took darkroom classes in high school and college. With a dream of becoming a photojournalist, I became a photography intern after college at the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Massachusetts and worked as a photographer’s assistant in Lenox, Massachusetts.

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A decade later, after working in marketing and getting an MBA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, my interest in photography was reignited by some projects I worked on with a Milwaukee filmmaker. In 2008, I recommitted to making images and exhibiting artwork. Since then, my work has been honored by a handful of awards and juried into many regional exhibitions. An installation of my ongoing series, cinephile was presented as a Featured Member Exhibitions in 2013 at the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts and at ArtPrize 2013 and ArtPrize 2014 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.Most recently, I've been working on two series of images made during travel, entitled Wayfarer and Voyages. I also make necklace pendants featuring my photographs, which evoke nostalgia for local landmarks and travel vistas.

You’re a long-time photographer and continue taking photos today. What keeps you motivated?

After 19 years at RAM, I left my full-time position to have a more flexible schedule and pursue some of my greatest joys: walking, hiking, and traveling. For me, making photographs is a natural extension of my daily activities. Framing images as I wander the sidewalks of Milwaukee or the trails of a Canadian National Park allows me to appreciate the finer details of my surroundings. My mindset as photographer—looking for scenes to share—feels like an eternal inspiration. I love noticing, and learning about, new things.

You are a pet sitter these days. How did you get started in that?

So, I am that person who purposely walks or drives by the dog park to catch a glimpse of them happily cavorting. Animals always brighten my day; and I wanted to give something back. My love of four-foots, combined with my enthusiasm for foot travel, led me to begin walking dogs. That notion blossomed into a pet care business, including walking, sitting, and drop-in visits for dogs and cats. My schedule is flexible yet very busy with the best work I could imagine. I am grateful to spend my efforts with beloved pets—hoping to make them as comfortable as possible when their humans are out of town.

Photography adds another dimension as I send frequent visual updates to pet parents.

You are traveling to Alaska for a pet sitting gig soon. How do you connect with this type of job?

For several years, I have been aware of an online resource called TrustedHousesitters.com that matches pet sitters with those in need of animal care in homes all over the world. Frankly, it sounded too good to be true, but a friend of mine relied on it to spend some time pet sitting in the Southwest. There is a

reasonable annual membership fee for both sitters and pet parents, but after that, there are no additional costs. As a sitter for a dog and cat in a cabin outside of Anchorage, Alaska in December, I’ll have the opportunity to hang out with some wonderful animals and explore the area without any lodging costs. I had been dreaming of spending part of my birthday month in Alaska. 

With other travel I have planned for this fall, the idea was outside my budget. In an instance of exciting serendipity, within two hours of this gig landing in my inbox, my application was approved, and I was researching flights to Alaska.

You enjoy travel for leisure as well. Tell us about some of your journeys.

Travel feeds my heart, soul, and mind. Really, there’s no way to overstate it, I love exploring our world. I have felt wonder at the nuances found in an independent coffee roaster/shop in Fort Madison, Iowa as well as the awe-inspiring geology of the Anterim Coast of Northern Ireland. 

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Along with a flexible schedule, I keep my living expenses as low as possible and focus my available budget on travel. To that end, I do not own a car, relying on walking and public transportation for pet care gigs. In the last few years, I have embraced train travel, crisscrossing the U.S. a few times with stops to experience New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Seattle as well as many hours to enjoy a variety of landscapes throughout the country.

With my partner, I have enjoyed thousands of miles of road trips to National Parks, including a visit to Yellowstone in an October snowstorm, camping within earshot of male elk bugling to attract mates in Rocky Mountain National Park, and marveling at a 360-degree sunset that surrounded us with stunning beauty in the salt flats of Death Valley National Park.

No matter where I adventure, I am thankful for the brilliant details and intriguing people I encounter— turned into shareable memories through my photography.