St. Augustine Artist Turns Ballpoint Pen Drawings Into Animal Advocacy

In Kassy Rose's hands, a Bic ballpoint pen is anything but ordinary. What looks like a simple black-and-white animal drawing may contain 40 to 50 layers of ink and more than a month's worth of work.

Kassy’s subjects range from a family of grizzlies to groups of curious alligators, changing animal species every time. She explained that the reason she is so drawn to creating portraits of animals is the chance to express emotions of animals who can’t speak for themselves. "They don't have a voice," said Kassy. "So my art speaks for them."

Her art also includes themes of parenthood, never showing more than two children, the same amount of children Kassy herself has. In the business of motherhood, art has become a way for her to relax and let go of the overwhelming weights on her mind.

But before children, Kassy started creating art with a ballpoint pen in a high school art course. “I saw a friend doodle with a ballpoint in class and so I asked her to show me how to use it,” Kassy said.

Her colleague spent time teaching her the variations and depth of the common tool. She completed her first work of art with the ballpoint at 16, a portrait of The Observant Owl.

After perfecting the work of ballpoint pen art she began using WhatNot, a live video streaming platform to share videos of her drawing, and auction off the drawings. The side-hustle eventually became profitable enough to look forward to a career as an artist.

When she moved to Summerville, South Carolina, in 2021 she displayed her work on the wall of a private gallery downtown, and was given a job as an art teacher. Since her move to North Florida in January 2026, Kassy’s work has been on the walls of the Zora Bora Gallery on Cuna Street in downtown St. Augustine, alongside a variety of 30 other local artists.

But Kassy’s work doesn’t stop at the gallery. Through Whatnot, she has also created the Animal Atlas, a Pokémon-inspired game where viewers can collect miniature versions of her animal artwork as she works toward her lifelong goal of drawing as many species as possible.

For an artist whose work began with a simple ballpoint pen, the goal is now much bigger: to keep creating and keep connecting with others through the art she creates.