Tom Cat

When my son was eighteen, he came home smiling ear to ear and declared, "I'm eighteen and I can adopt a cat." Then he showed us the most adorable tiny orange tabby kitten. Well, I have to admit that we weren't thrilled. We already had two big dogs and an elderly cat. So we told our son that he'd have to keep the cat in his room and pay all the expenses.

Skip forward three years. That tiny kitten, Tommy, is now one of our twelve beloved pets (1 big dog, 3 cats...all rescues, and eight chickens). We love that orange tabby our kid adopted so much that when our son decided to move out a couple of years ago we told him he wasn't allowed to take Tommy with him.

Last week my son asked me to paint "something like this". He handed me my favorite illustrated childhood piano book. It was a line drawing of a down on his luck, clearly drunk, injury prone cat. I told him, "Sure, but I'm not going to make him a drunk cat."

After days of idea collaboration here is "Tom Cat". My son is stoked to have it on his bedroom wall. I think this commission makes me happier than all of the others I've had the privilege of doing.


And, icing on the cake, my kid and I chose to raise money for Austin Pets Alive by giving them a portion of every print sold.

"Tom Cat"

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Prints of my art are available in my Etsy shop.

I welcome commissions.

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Fluffy

I was commissioned to paint this lovely creature. What fun! And what an honor! Now I want to do a lot more pet portraits.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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Meow

Painting is sometimes a challenge. A fun challenge, of course, but this particular painting was an entirely new kind of challenge I've not experienced before.

Here's how it went:

- I painted a base coat and let it dry for a few hours.
- Pug, our cat, lay on it after it dried.
- I painted a basic cat outline.
- Pug lay on it.
- I added more details.
- Pug lay on it.

- I added color to its eyes.

- Pug lay on it.

- I declared it "finished".

- Pug lay on it.

Hours passed and I decided I wanted to scan it. But "you know who" was laying on it so I waited till he got hungry and I snatched it away.

This painting is absolutely, positively 100% cat tested and approved.

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Looking the Other Way

My old cat, Pug, loves me. He really, really does. But since he's a cat with all the groovy cat characteristics, him sitting on the edge of the deck looking away from me while I sit at our umbrella table...well, I call that awesome together bonding time.

I'm absolutely positive that he feels the exact same way.

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He is Not Amused

So we've had our cat door for a couple of weeks now. Our little cat, Tommy, is pretty much grooving on it. He can go out when he wants, come in when he wants, and exercise his independence as the awesome teenage cat that he is.

Pug, on the other hand, is not amused. While he understands the concept of independence, he prefers to have things the way they've always been.

You know, the way in which the humans were his minions. He could stand at the door and stare at it and we'd get up and let him out. He could stand on our back porch staring in and we'd open the door for him...and he'd invariably stand there a while considering if we were worth of his presence...or not.

With the cat door we humans are no longer, well, minions.

Bless his stubborn little feline heart....

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What Kitty Cat Wants, Kitty Cat Gets

Our cats want in. Then they want out. Then they want in. Then they want out. And on and on and on....

So my brilliant husband installed a cat door. It should all be fine and dandy now. The cats should be totally independent. Right?

Well, perhaps someday, but for now here's how it goes.

The cats want in. We go outside and shove them in the cat door. The cats want out. We shove them out the cat door. And on and on and on....


Our cats sure have well trained humans.

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Following the Light

Dave was clearing out some old stuff from his office and came upon an old laser pointer. Now this is not one of those tiny ones, no, this is a large hand held piece of equipment. And since it was out he figured, why not see what the animals will do with the light it projects.

Well...

Hazel, our 85 pound wonder puppy chicken immediately ran to the hallway and remained there until the laser pointer was put away.

Pug, our senior tabby cat gave it a brief look and bid it farewell.

Tommy, our kitten thought it was the best thing since canned cat food.

And Scout, our old lady dog, had the best time of all, chasing it about, to and fro, until her bursitis got the best of her.

Good times were had.

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Pretty Kitty

We have these huge quilted decorative pillows for our bed.  What we plan to do is this...each day after we get up and make the bed, put the decorative pillows on top.  What happens is this...we half-hazardly pull the duvet up and walk away.

But it works out just fine because each day after we pull the duvet up, our cats get on our bed and settle in for their all-day-long catnap. And it turns out that cats make the best decorative pillows ever. 

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Got a Frog in his Throat

...or maybe a toad...or perhaps a lizard.

Yup, our wee little cat learned a valuable life lesson the other night.  At least we hope he did.

Dave saw the little dude with some sort of amphibian/lizard type critter in his mouth.  Being the proud little cat that he is, he took off runnin' not about to give up his prized possession.

But it turns out that such critters have a defense of their own designed to discourage predators...and our sweet little predator was soon frothing at the mouth and barely able to see through his swollen, squinty eyes.

Off to the emergency vet we went where $89 later it was determined that our little dude would be just fine.  And maybe, just maybe, he learned a little somethin'.

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Getting his Sardine On

Our little kitten is so chill.  He'll let the boys wear him as a hat.  He'll let them wear him as a scarf.  He'll even let us snuggle him for hours minutes on end. 

But if you pull out a tin of sardines, all chill bets are off.  Chill kitty turns into wacked out obsessive kitty.  MUST GET FISH!!!!

No way we're letting this little guy around catnip.

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My Hallway Mural is Finished!

Yup, I finished it. 

The family has been so great.  Dave thinks it's awesome.  My little guy thinks it's a bit "kiddish" and that I "should have started it a few years ago," but he also thinks it's pretty darn neat.  My big guy says, "That's really cool, mom."  And his girlfriend, the only other human girl that hangs out at my house these days says, "I love the cat.  It's my favorite part."

So there ya go!  The reviews are in.  And I'm giving myself five stars...see 'em?  They're right there at the top.

Oh, and when the light is low, the owls and stars appear to glow.  And now I think I need a black light!

Stop by any time.  The mural loves visitors.


P.S. The actual mural is more of a square shape.  My wonderful husband took a bunch of photos of its parts and seamed them together to create this image.  Thanks, Dave!!!!

 

 This is my Hallway Project.

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Who dunnit?

My big guy is outa here for about three weeks.  I look at this as an amazing opportunity for my little guy to shine.  Bet you're thinking I'm talking about how he'll have the chance to get all the adult time, energy, and love.  Well, he'll get that, too, of course.  But what I'm talking about is this.


He'll have the chance to prove the following, leaving us no choice but to solely blame his brother:

- he always flushes after using the toilet.

- he consistently turns lights off when he leaves rooms.

- he never leaves dishes strewn about the living room.


Let the absolutely, positively, loving mom data collection begin.

This is part of my Hallway Project.

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An Early Morning Scare

Sometimes when you think you're not alone, but it turns out you are, that ends up being a good thing.

Case in point:  This morning I got in my car.  I closed my door and saw something out of the corner of my eye.  I turned my head, saw nothing, turned my head...AND THERE IT WAS AGAIN!  My heartbeat accelerated.  I started to perspire just a tad.  I even reached over to lock all of the car doors.  But being me, I accidentally opened my window instead, which nearly gave me a heart attack. 

I got the window back up, managed to lock all the doors, held my breath, and turned my head.  I saw nothing, then turned my head back...and then I figured it out. 

Yes, I was scared of my own reflection. 

My little guy often manages to hit my driver's side mirror as he walks his bike to the back yard through the carport. 


And then slightly sweaty and much relieved me headed off to work.

This is part of my Hallway Project.

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Examining the Data

I have to say that I find something very interesting.  I live with three fellas and the microwave at our house is a serious disaster.  Despite the fact that we have two microwave dome covers that live on top of our microwave, the inside of our microwave looks like a gruesome scene from "Dexter"...splatters everywhere...ceiling, sides, door, circular tray...disgusting. 

Now, the microwave in my classroom is used by me and the lovely woman with whom I'm lucky enough to work.  We use it each and every school day, all school year long, and on the last day of school we don't every have to clean it because it is pristine.  Note:  we do not have a microwave dome cover.

Hmmmm...I'm not quite sure what to conclude from this. 

This is part of my Hallway Project.  More little friends keep showing up!

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Axe Awesomeness

The fastest and easiest way to get your kid to do manual labor is to offer a tool to go along with it.  And what is the most desirable tool ever?  Well, from the data I've collected it's absolutely, positively an axe. 

Give the kid a rake and ask him to fill the bags with leaves and the reception is cool at best.

Give the kid an axe and ask him to chop up all the branches you've trimmed and you've got the most amazing, manic, obsessive worker ever.

You're welcome.

This is part of my Hallway Project.

Click here to check out my gallery.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Chicken TV

I heard from someone that when you get chickens as pets they are so captivating that they're basically chicken TV.  And it's true!  In addition to setting up a living space for our five new chickens, we've set up a living space for us as well.  A living space devoted exclusively to chicken watching.  We sit out there with our snacks, our drinks, and even our computers.

But when we're not out there, and the coop is closed up tight, it turns out our cats take over our spots and watch the chickens, too.  Only I think they're likely drooling as they watch "Tastes Like Chicken" TV.

This is part of my Hallway Project.

Click here to check out my gallery.

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Hairy Cat

I love to wear black.  I usually have some black on pretty much all of the time.  My bikini is black.  My workout clothes are black.  My favorite shoes are black (except for my most recent pair which is leopard print...but those are totally cool, as you'll see later in this post).  My jackets are black.  Most of my shirts are black.  And a large number of my dresses are black as well.

I also love my cats.  A lot.  And they happen to be orange tabbies...which is the problem.

As it's warming up, they're beginning to shed.  A lot.  This means their hair is everywhere, even with a good brushing now and again.  And all that orange hair has become my accent color.  Skip back to my comment about my new leopard print shoes.  Well, those are only improved by the addition of soft orange kitty cat hairs.

So here's what I think needs to happen.  There needs to be a chameleon cat invented.  They're doing wackier stuff with DNA, so why not, right?  A cat who could not only blend in with any color background, but its shed hair would easily blend in with any item of clothing I could challenge it with.

Alright you scientist types...go!

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Cat-astrophe

I'm thoroughly convinced that my kid likes torturing me.  Here's how I know.

I'll be at work teaching my awesome students and my phone alerts me that I have a text.  When I finally get around to checking it, it's usually a photo of our pets being seriously adorable.  And there's nothing quite so adorably distracting as a sweet dog or cat totally waiting to be snuggled.

But today I think I realized that my kid is torturing the pets, too.  Not that the pets are hurt in any way.  And not that they even have a clue that something is terribly, terribly wrong.  But today's mom torture photo text was a photo of our kitten and our old cat on my little guy's disgusting unmade bed.  Mess can be seen on the bed, on the floor near the bed, and even out into the hallway.  And the reason I know this must be torture to the cats, too, (though they choose to remain on that bed for some reason) is that the kitten has his eyes closed and the old cat has one eye closed and the other just barely open.  Please scroll down a bit to check out just what I mean. 

The can't even look at their surroundings!

I think maybe, just maybe, that tonight is a good night to make the kid clean his room.

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 The Evidence

Celebrating and a Give Away!

Today I'm celebrating!  One thousand days ago I started an adventure...an adventure in fun, love, and creativity.  At first it was just for fun and stress release, and over the thousand days it's truly become my absolute bliss.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has followed and supported me during this adventure of mine.  I'm excited to start the next thousand paintings tomorrow.

P.S.  And to celebrate, I'm having a 50% off sale through April 21st (my birthday!) on all my paintings.  Unfortunately there's no way to do a discount on the site, so message me the one(s) you want and I'll happily adjust the price.  Click here to go to my shop.

P.P.S.  And I want to give away one of my pieces.  Leave a comment on this blog post telling me how you find your creative bliss and I'll randomly pick a winner on Friday.  Be sure to leave your email address so I can get a hold of you. 

Click here to purchase this painting.

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Cat Tale

We're pretty darn sure our kitten has a broken tail.  Instead of doing its usual salute to the sun it's all downward dog.  And if we even think about touching that tail, our kitty is all, "Do it and you'll draw back a bloody nub."  And now, for about the millionth time in my life, I find myself wishing that cats could talk...because I'd so totally love to hear his cat tale.

All I know is that his beautiful glaring eyes are totally saying, "Yeah, but you should see the other guy."

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