Four months later and I miss my cats...

... so I've been staring at other people's photographs (and one painting) of them.

Andrew B. Myers, The Wonderkid

William Wegman, Looking at, 1973

 Jamie Campbell, From Still Life Cats

Bobby Doherty

Jacob Aue Sobol, From Arrivals and Departures

Osang Gwon, From Park, 2014

David Brandon Geeting

Marc Dennis, Night Out, 2012

Balthus, The Last Studies

J. Carrier from Elementary Calculus

Thomas Gardiner, From Untitled USA

The Pile of Library Books That Keeps on Giving

Next time a couple hundred dollars falls into my lap, remind me to purchase this:

Todd Hido's Excerpts from Silver Meadows.

Boise in September

Fire Alarm Dispatch cards at the Sesqui Shop. They are hand drawn maps showing the location of the box alarms in Boise.

Best paint by number artwork in Laurie and Stephanie's guest room.

Spotone on the bookshelf.

Laurie in the garden she has photographed for a couple years.

White cats left in a cul-de-sac.

View from the Boise Airport that I will never forget since I first saw it as a child.

National Gallery of Art & Few Random D.C. Photographs

Contemplating the cat's presence in Hendrik Goltzius's The Fall of Man, 1616. From the National Gallery's website: "The cat, representing the unjust judge, solemnly reminds viewers not to enjoy what they should condemn, lest they too cause more harm than good."

The back of Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci, c. 1474/1478 ("Beauty adorns virtue").

An unexpected surprise: the Garry Winogrand exhibition at the National Gallery. I viewed many works reminding me of the days spent working at the Center for Creative Photography where his archive is housed. In addition to old favorites (Fort Worth stock yards, Bronx Zoo, streets of Los Angeles) and postmortem prints, I was struck by the objects: contact sheets, Guggenheim letters of recommendation and astonishingly, a letter from his ex-wife outlining his ineptitude with finances.

My favorite painting at the National Gallery: a trompe l'oeil detail of Cornelis Norbetus Gijsbrechts's Hanging Wall Pouch from 1647.

An unfortunate crop of a Sol LeWitt sculpture outside the National Gallery (the sunshine is deceiving as it was 20 degrees).

My great intentions to skip a sliver of Camden Hardy's concrete block in the Reflection Pool were thwarted.

I could not help but feel as if I walked into several dozen Hollywood films when wandering around the Lincoln Memorial, halfway expecting Matt Damon to jump out of a limousine.

I pressed it (with gloves on) and it didn't do anything.

The beauty of spending Spring Break away from the Midwest is seeing the third showing of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel while staying in Washington, D.C. The Royal Tenenbaums is my highest Wes Anderson standard and this film was the closest to meeting it (though Moonrise Kingdom gives it a run for its money). This slideshow of the model from The New York Times was reminiscent of all the window displays I saw in Prague last summer (on a lesser scale). I am looking forward to watching it again (keeping an eye out for all the strategically placed artwork).

With this, I am officially caught up with Spring Break posts. Thirty days until "summer vacation" (in quotes because it snowed yesterday and it is very difficult to fathom that it is finally spring).

Scott Reeder's "Post Cats"

Scott Reeder, Post Cats, 2013

Arne Svenson's "Strays"

Arne Svenson, From the series Strays

There is so much to love about Arne Svenson's latest project Strays. It is all I can do not to post every single image from his series (I will not so be sure to check more out here). From the artist statement:

"Strays are images of kittens that are photographed in such a way that denies the viewer the opportunity to see their faces. The heads are turned so far to the background so as to totally disengage the subject from the viewer. In many cases, the head is turned far enough so as to appear as though there is no face to the kitten as if it had slipped off, to be replaced by the blankness of fur."

Arne Svenson, From the series Strays 

I have known of Svenson's work since he exhibited Sock Monkeys in Portland, Oregon. I've avidly followed the controversy behind The Neighbors (finding those images to be some of the most elegant representations of voyeurism ever). Why not follow it up with studio portraits of cats? Thank you Mr. Svenson for finding great humor in such a challenging photographic situation.

Arne Svenson, From the series Strays

Tanya Gadbaw: "A Collection of Sweets and Memories"

This week during a pause in the installation of the Echo of the Object in Knoxville, Jennifer introduced me to the paintings of Tanya Gadbaw.  I am drawn to both the subject matter (objects instilled with memories) and the use of a recognizable, yet abstract material as background.

Tanya Gadbaw, Disappearing Generation 8, 2013 (oil on canvas and found object)

Tanya Gadbaw, Leaving Grandma's, 2012 (oil on canvas)

Tanya Gadbaw, Mom, 2011

From Tanya's artist statement:

"A family member once described our family as the “kids from the woods”. This statement reflects my choices aesthetically and conceptually within my work. My family, headed by my grandmother, grew up with many values, different cultures, and a strong work ethic. I have Blackfoot Indian heritage, an African American father, a Mennonite religious grandmother, and surroundings of the Amish and other cultures.

I focus in on my multi- cultural background to produce beautiful paintings and drawings that reflect objects, home cooking, canning, sewing, quilting, patchwork, patterns, and sensational colors. I take traditions, memories, and elements that might be considered as ‘folk’ or ‘old fashioned’ and incorporate them into my work."

 All artwork courtesy of Tanya's website.

"A Tale of Two Obsessions..." is now finished!

Sixteen months later (with a lot of help from my friends), I finished the cat claw card / ode to Arline Conradt. It is not possible to accurately count all the claws as there are small bunches of nail cuttings that are too small to determine. There are two kitten teeth, however (courtesy of James Luckett and Tanya Maus).

Plates to Pixels: July 2013

I met Blue Mitchell at Photolucida and he kindly chose A Tale of Two Obsessions for exhibition on his website Plates to Pixels for the month of July. It is the first time both David C. Nolan and Arline Conradt are seen together beyond my website and may it not be the last!

"Spiral Kitty"

Also see Francis Alÿs: The Paradox of Praxis (Cat Version) here.

Brought to you by Homesession Barcelona via an email link from Adam Davis. 

27 Months Later...

My response to Arline Conradt's cat scrapbook is complete!

Size: 17" x 14" x 2.5"
Number of Pages: 176
Number of Cats: 3770

Arline Conradt's original scrapbook:
Size: 16" x 14" x 3.5"
Number of Pages: 310
Number of Cats: 3770

Post-its from my response:
Most number of cats on one page: 355
Least number of cats on one page: 1

Post-its from Arline's cat scrapbook:
Most number of cats on one page: 90
Least number of cats on one page: 1

Number of glue sticks it took to adhere my response: 7

Examples of individual pages (above and below)

After spending six days gluing 2200 cats, I added an addendum (perhaps foolishly). Here it is in its entirety. The numbers featured here are not part of the 3770.

Mock-up installation photographs of my response in front of Arline Conradt's cat scrapbook transformed into wallpaper.

Videos I streamed & rented on Netflix while gluing: Zero Dark Thirty, Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, Detropia, Into the Abyss, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Roman Holiday, Our City Dreams, A Small Act, Crips & Bloods: Made in America, Moving Midway, Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, Elegy, The Rape of Europa, The Gates, and three Wholphin DVDs.

Next up: updating the website and collecting 25 more cat claws. I can see the light at the end of the very long tunnel. Thanks to everyone that helped me accumulate cats the last two years.