Massage Cat

I have a masseuse who trades art for massage. She has magic hands that go the distance in getting the knots out of my muscles. It helps keep my neuromuscular problems temporarily at bay. The therapeutic massage inspired the remake of my illustration of Massage Cat for my Book of Marvelous Cats. In my revised illustration, I incorporated the art of Ekphrasis - paying homage to an earlier illustration of Cosmic Cat in the composition. It seemed fitting that Massage Cat would have an eastern style scroll of a Hindu god on his wall. Note the tabby hair on the man receiving the massage.

Another Angle on an Old Drawing

I had always liked the conte crayon sketch I made of a man seated among easels. It was a composition based upon triangles. This was the latest sketch that I fleshed out with charcoal, chalk, and grey pastels into a complete little drawing. It was satisfying to finally finish this up.

Vainly Made Art

The illustrations I have been working on are time-consuming and detailed. Although on a good run I could finish two in a day, generally these pencil drawings take one to three days to complete. Therefore, I’ve taken a short hiatus from those and worked on drawings that yield quicker results. For these I used charcoals and pastels.

The last two finished drawings were reworked from old sketches made my more vigorous youth. I was very prolific albeit easily distracted and impatient. That is why I have a veritable plethora of sketches but few complete drawings. The one above that I just reworked and completed brings to mind an interesting but cautionary tale of vanity galleries. The goat on a pathway was a sketch for a large painting that was exhibited in a gallery in Washington D.C. It was a vanity gallery and I had to pay a fee to exhibit there. That was back in the day when it was difficult for an emerging artist such as myself to obtain exhibition opportunities. The gallery shipped back the work only after persistent nagging on my part. It was shipped via UPS and for some reason there was a hole punched through the box and right through the canvas. I reported this to the gallery and they filed a claim. UPS paid the shipper, the gallery owner, and then came to collect my damaged painting. The gallery kept the money and I lost a painting. Eventually I did win a small claims suit against the gallery using the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts but the owner of the gallery slipped out of his responsibilities by closing his gallery and declaring bankruptcy. After making off with other artist’s money as well, said gallery owner then had the nerve to write an article for a local newspaper about his failed business, complaining about how vain and demanding artists are. I recall the article was called “Bonfire of the Vanities.” I’ve avoided using galleries that ask for money up front ever since. I’ve often wondered whether my experience is also what helped change UPS policies in refusing to insure paintings or art behind glass!

The drawing below is a reworked charcoal of a model I sketched during graduate school.

Another Generation of Cave Cats and Tomb Cats

Continuing with my revisions for my illustrated book of cats, I’ve just finished two more. The Cave Cats is an updated version of my previous illustration. The new version varies the sizes of the cats to give an impression of atmospheric perspective. Added are the details of fossil shells and arrow heads.


These days, when I revise a drawing, I sometimes find that the revisions spawn new illustrations and poems. This is what happened with the Cave Cat revision. My first remake was patterned after the cave paintings in Chinese Han tombs. But when that drawing was finished, I realized that it no longer went with the “paleolithic” poem. So I wrote a new kitty ditty to go with this drawing and called it “Tomb Cats.” It goes like this:

In sacred spaces where spirits loom

flying cats protect a tomb

filled with objects for veneration

from ages past to the present generation

The Food Not Eaten

I recently curated an on line exhibition for Etsy called “Cakes and Pies Before Our Eyes,” featuring artist’s paintings of this subject. I am now reading Phyllis Bober’s book on ancient and medieval gastronomy, Art Culture and Cuisine, a highly readable feast of fantastic historical practices surrounding food.


Perhaps I look at these pictures of desserts and read history books about food because I am on a liquid diet after an affront to my precarious digestive system. Interestingly, now that one sense is not stimulated by the visual impact of food I can appreciate it for its form alone. I am no stranger to the art of making pictures of food not eaten. There was a time in England when my stomach gave out for a while and I was obliged to look at food but not partake. The drawing above dates from that time, when I was served a plate of dumplings that I could only look at. I made this drawing in appreciation of the aesthetic form of the dumplings carefully arranged on their oblong serving tray. A second drawing, not pictured, followed of my husband eating the dumplings. By making the drawings I need not enjoy food solely in a vicarious way.

AT the time I made the food drawings the only tool I had on hand was a black ink pen in my purse. In order to make them more appealing as drawings I recently resurfaced them with grey, black and white pastels.

The Cat of Mardi Gras

The latest in my ongoing revisions of drawings for my Book of Marvelous Cats is the illustration for Mardi Gras Cat. A quick look at the original drawing at right shows that my second try brought forth some nice detailing in the human mask that the cat wears. I thought it would be interesting to surround the cat with empty animal masks while the cat sports a human face. This time, the revisions were selective refinements rather than additional details. Indeed, there are fewer masks in the new version.

Wild and Crazy Polydactyl Cat

Recent events made me decide to work on my revision of “Dissociation Cat.” The new drawing in the larger format allowed me to stretch out his form - plenty of cat swinging room here. For the remake I decided to create a polydactyl cat with several tails and multiple flailing limbs. A few floating cat heads were added as well. I felt that the remake of the “Dissociation Cat” image deserved a new poem as well which now alludes to his altered state and multiple tails and limbs.

For the sake of comparison, I included the original, smaller version at right. Same basic image, reversed and with additions.

Cosmic Cat on the Sea of the Universe

One thing led to another. I revised my illustration for “Mommy Cat” and in doing the research for appropriate details to add, found a miniature of a Hindu god floating on a leaf in the cosmic sea. Inspired, I created “Cosmic Cat,” replete with Indian garb and asleep on his mystical leaf. The poem for this cat illustration is:


Cosmic Cat

Cosmic Cat floats on a leaf in the sea

oblivious to you and to me

From worldly cares he is set free

and one with the universe he will be