Pat Cranor is a California native now residing in the Los Angeles Area. He still remembers the day he wanted to become an artist-the day he won his first art award in the sixth grade. After a successful career as an advertising agency art director, in 1986 Pat moved to Japan. There he developed his own oriental style with watercolors. He created striking, colorful, and culture-clashing scenes as viewed by a foreigner.

     With the birth of his first child, Pat painted a series of animals designed for his son’s nursery. Child-development experts suggested that bright colors and repeated images were beneficial to a baby’s development, so Pat applied this knowledge by developing a style of taking one image, repeating it, and putting it into the composition. 

        Upon returning to the United States, Pat started painting full-time and took his warm and huorous "animals" to the streets and into the greeting card market. His illustrated cards can be found in galleries and gift shops across the country, from the Smithsonian in Washington D. C., and the United Nations center in New York to the San Diego Zoo and the Long Beach Aquarium, as well as many other stores and boutiques.