Turning the Other Cheek
I was alone in the gallery and working on the composition for my latest painting. I had gone to the framing room to get my yard stick. The lights were off, since I had spent much of the day in the front of the gallery. Now my framing room is completely windowless, so it really is quite dark when the lights are off. As I am walking back to the front room, I hear the frenzied little pitter patting of feet. I stop and listen . . . silence. (It reminded me of those shows where they have a hiker in the woods somewhere, being stalked by something. The hiker senses he is in trouble. The hairs on his neck stand up, adrenalin courses through his body, and he gets the distinct feeling that he is being watched. But he just can’t determine from where.) It was exactly like that!
I slowly turn around and see nothing but darkness. I hold my breath and listen . . . more silence. There is a door that closes this room off, from the front room. It is open, but blocking my view of everything to the right of it. So I peek into the door crack, squinting hard to see if I could see anything.
SMACK! I hop backward and squeal, in a volume and pitch usually only heard in small children. After a moment, I hear the frenzied little pitter patting of feet running away.
Dramatic Re-creation. Those of a sensitive nature should avert their eyes.
I have to admire the skill and dexterity in which he pulled that off. I mean, he jumped 3-4 feet in the air, shoved his whole arm through the door crack and slapped me full on the cheek.
Well it was bound to happen, wasn’t it? I point and laugh at Mike getting slapped by the cat. And then he gets me too. Is it karma, or once again, am I being struck down for my hubris?
Nature or Nurture
Oliver, the previous king of the gallery, was big into slapping. Mostly he did a flyby type where he ran full tilt, slapped the back of your leg, and continued on out of the room. The rooms in the gallery form a big circle. Which makes this form of attack, perfect for the getaway.
Ollie also slapped faces, and on rare occasion, people’s butts as they walked out the door. One of my customers suggested I make a sign “Don’t let the cat hit you on the ass, on your way out the door.”
I always took it for granted that this behavior was hard wired into him. But now, I think we may have created it. Since Budda has never slapped anyone, for any reason, until recently.
I think it happened like this:
Budda spends time plotting his plan of attack.
He runs in, makes a successful slap.
We squeal appropriately. (the big payoff)
He runs away laughing maniacally to himself.
Budda spends time plotting his plan of attack.
And thus, another slapping gallery cat has been created.
How bizarre! Happy slapping cats! If you had more than one cat at a time maybe one of them would record it? Now that would be odd!
Budda is my second indoor cat ever, so I really have no idea of what is normal.
Budda and Ollie share the same lineage so that may have something to do with their high play drives.
I’ve been meaning to say Hi! and Thanks for adding me to your blogroll. I’ve been wanting to go through your blogsite a little more thoroughly before leaving a comment.
BTW Love the ballerina piece!
Oh thank you!
I came across your blog when I was searching for artists that use oil pastels. Your work is amazingly detailed. And I love blogs with tutorials because I want to learn how to do everything!
The detail is my oil pastelwork is sort of an optical illusion. I do have a couple of paintings, where I think I really pushed what I could do in terms of detail (Days End- Belgian team, being one.) But mostly I work using cropped images on a larger scale. My average oil pastel is 20×28.
If there is anything in particular you are curious about feel free to ask. I will attempt to address it in a post.
I see your blog is still new (as is mine.) How are you liking the whole blogging experience?
Well, I’m not entirely new to blogging to be honest, but I chose a different identity for this new blog. As someone who is just starting to rediscover their creative side, it’s interesting for me to look back over my old posts and see my progress and how my views are changing. But the best thing really is reading other art blogs. It’s so inspiring and informative. How about you? Are you enjoying writing your blog? How long have you been an artist for?
I am enjoying the blog quite a bit. It takes way more time than I expected, especially the How-To stuff.
The short answer to the artist question, is all my life. I am self taught but grew up in an artistic family.
The long answer, I been a professional artist (meaning we make our living off from artwork sales and gallery business) for about 5 years. We opened the gallery 8 years ago, as additional income and then the art thing just sort of took over. My husband quit farming and here we are.
It’s not an easy path, but most of the time it is rewarding.