It’s been a bit quiet on the R and R front this Fall but I’ve not been entirely idle. I have a piece coming out in Intrepid Ed News next week so that’s something to look forward to along with Thanksgiving.
It takes a rather jaundiced eye on the topic of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and how our obsession with identity has led us astray. I am sure you will all be super excited to read my suggestions for what schools can do to fix the problem.
Meanwhile here is a little distraction: Cats and how they persist in getting themselves into works of art even if just as bit players to the main attraction.
Here’s a cat boiling its brain.
Here are two working cats in supervision mode:
And a cat keeping an eye on the destructive folly of humans.
In this memory painting of growing up in the American South, Winfred Rembert shows us the yard outside his wife’s family’s home. It’s all happening and the cat is managing it all from atop a stump.
This is another London scene and you have to really want to find that cat
Collioure might be famous as the birthplace of Fauvism and known as the “city of painters” but what is a landscape without a cat?
And one last rather malevolent-seeming cat lurking under the table in Cecily Brown’s. 2020 Lobsters, oysters, cherries, and pearls seen at the Met exhibit Death and the Maid
I absolutely LOVED this post!
My favorite was the Rembert!
Since my new cat connections are apparently staying for the long haul, I am fascinated by them.
I saw that painting at an exhibit along with many of his other works. Amazing stuff.
Love this and thank you for introducing Melissa-Scott-Miller’s painting. It is so lovely.
Gwen.
Thanks Gwen. You might enjoy some of her other urban landscapes. I find them very appealing https://www.scottmillerart.com/
All the detail brings it alive.The many small incidences that conjoin to create a place. A bit of this and a bit of that…Memories of a slope to the canal on my many walks. How much i want to get well and visit again..and visit wave hill. Meanwhile wheres that postcard…half apostcard
Her back gardens are so…well. London. Dirty yellow clay brink and all.
(Do I still owe you half a postcard? Oh dear! That’s very remiss of me. )
Islington landscape really interesting , and I found the cat!
You found Waldo!
Melissa-Scott-Miller has several similar Islington back garden paintings all of which are great. In some of them, she shows an artist at an easel along with her dog. I love all of them. There are more examples of her urban landscapes here: https://www.scottmillerart.com/
Love the way you introduce me to artists I don’f know.
I found the Islington cat right away. It was the second cat in the Sorting Garlic picture I had trouble with, then realised the caption referred to 2 different paintings. Duh. Cats do indeed like to insert themselves and to run the show. I find it’s best to let them believe they do. Which they don’t. Usually. Sometimes.
Always.
I love your wise observation:”a cat keeping an eye on the destructive folly of humans.” Unfortunately, even a cat with nine eyes would be as unmoved (by what he sees) as are the humans behind the folly. :'(
Ha Ha!! very fun thanks! I can’t find the cat in the Islington gardens though only the dog. . .
It’s on the garden path, bottom left. It may have gone home for its tea by now though.