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Can't get enough cats!
So after a reinventing of my cat attachment technique last week, I have made much more progress on the skirt. My plan is to have it completely covered from one angle so I can use it in photo installations.
So after a reinventing of my cat attachment technique last week, I have made much more progress on the skirt. My plan is to have it completely covered from one angle so I can use it in photo installations.
As for the ever-changing top concept, I am moving away from the idea of making something that would go with a period costume theme and work more with the ideas of different personas. Typologies of cat ladies. The cutesy cat lady who wears cutesy cat things, the artsy cat lady whose black shirts are forever sprinkled with hair, the insane cat lady who never seems to brush her hair or change her sweater. I may also create a top covered in cats like the skirt, but not until after next critique.
As for the photo installations, I am planning right now to focus on tableaux portraying the idea of "filling the void," where the cat(s) is a stand-in for familial or romantic relationships. The stigma on cat ladies stems from the fact that they do not subscribe to the traditional roles of women as wives and mothers in our society. Having separated themselves from these roles, these women can access more diverse possibilities, ranging from the benign to the dangerous. They are an "other" - sorry about that pretentious academic term, but it's true - which can easily be pigeonholed, stereotyped, and made fun of. But there's something in this unattached position of emotional vulnerability, unfulfilled needs, and loneliness which everyone can sympathize with. There's a gap between how the cat lady appears to other people, and how she experiences her own life.
The cat is put in the position of both companion and child, and assigned various human attributes. In my installations, I am going to focus on this side of catladyhood, rather than making a biting attack on extreme cases, which I was thinking about doing for a while but right now is not the direction I want to go.
As for the photo installations, I am planning right now to focus on tableaux portraying the idea of "filling the void," where the cat(s) is a stand-in for familial or romantic relationships. The stigma on cat ladies stems from the fact that they do not subscribe to the traditional roles of women as wives and mothers in our society. Having separated themselves from these roles, these women can access more diverse possibilities, ranging from the benign to the dangerous. They are an "other" - sorry about that pretentious academic term, but it's true - which can easily be pigeonholed, stereotyped, and made fun of. But there's something in this unattached position of emotional vulnerability, unfulfilled needs, and loneliness which everyone can sympathize with. There's a gap between how the cat lady appears to other people, and how she experiences her own life.
The cat is put in the position of both companion and child, and assigned various human attributes. In my installations, I am going to focus on this side of catladyhood, rather than making a biting attack on extreme cases, which I was thinking about doing for a while but right now is not the direction I want to go.
In other news, so much has been happening around studio! We had a visiting artist for Island Press, Allison Smith, with whom we made homemade gas masks. We published a zine with Whammo. We had an art sale, and I sold a cat print! We have been trading art; I traded a stuffed version of Muffin for a BEAUTIFUL Kim Wardenburg sewn drawing on handmade paper which I LOVE.
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