Faculty member’s artwork noted as one of top 12 national journal covers

Cover of JAVMA from Nov. 1, 2018, featuring a painting of two dogs by Dr. Elodie Huguet.

This oil-on-canvas painting, measuring 14″ x 21″, was created by Dr. Elodie Huguet and ran on the cover of the Nov. 1, 2018 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, or JAVMA, recently selected its Top 12 journal cover illustrations, consisting of art created by those associated with the veterinary profession over a period of 50 years. One of the covers highlighted in this elite group was an oil-on-canvas painting titled “A Toy for Two,” created by Dr. Elodie Huguet, a clinical professor of diagnostic imaging at the college and a longtime artist.

“I’ve always done art as a hobby, and it’s something that’s always been a part of me,” Huguet said. “I’ve always been recognized for it. As far back as elementary school, art just came easy, and it’s always been a nice escape from everything else.”

The painting, titled “A Toy for Two,” appeared on the cover of the Nov. 1, 2018 issue of JAVMA. It was a present for the wife of Dr. Clifford “Kip” Berry, a former UF faculty member in diagnostic imaging.

“Dr. Berry was a longtime radiology professor at UF and an impactful mentor throughout my radiology training,” Huguet said.

When Huguet moved from France to the United States at the age of 13, art classes were a place where she could connect with people around her without using words, especially since she knew very little English at the time.

“I’ve won various small art competitions over the years, such as high school sidewalk art, logo and United States Dressage Foundation contests and more,” she said, adding that she mostly paints in oil but has been doing more digital art lately, especially logos.

“I like to keep it a hobby and wish there would be more time to enjoy it,” she said. “Most of my work is commissioned or I’ve donated.”

The cover of JAVMA’s April issue highlighted the Top 12 covers produced in 50 years.

The journal has been reprinting historical cover art throughout 2023 as part of its Golden Jubilee celebration of cover art in the journal and the creation of beautiful art for the veterinary profession, wrote Dr. Lisa Fortier, editor-in-chief of JAVMA and its sister research-oriented publication, the American Journal of Veterinary Research, in a message to members.

“Featuring animal art on the cover of a scientific journal is unique to JAVMA and is very popular with our members, readers and the veterinary art community,” she wrote. “When we first began publishing cover artwork, we didn’t do so with every issue. Over time, however, the enthusiastic public response to these images prompted us to run them with increasing frequency, until eventually every issue featured animal art on its cover.”

The process of narrowing down the Top 12 started with the journal’s publication division reading all of the “About the Cover” statements published in the journal over time and identifying 181 covers created by members of the veterinary community. Then members of the journal’s JAVMArt Jubilee Committee each voted on their top 10 favorite covers, which narrowed the selections to 25. Those 25 were then voted on by attendees of the 2022 AVMA convention in Philadelphia, whittling the selections down to 12. Those are the pieces being reproduced now each month of the year.