Cat portraits

I started painting cats as a way to distance myself from my subject. I had become too close to whatever was in my head, and the actual process got blurry. The cat portraits began with a proposition—how could anyone put an obvious cat on canvas and place it on a gallery wall? What would a contemporary cat portrait look like? How could a flea market staple become something less mundane and more tender, how could it articulate painting’s messy history without losing its fundamental catness? Would such a seemingly trite subject allow more freedom, or would its kitsch attributes inevitably mire it in a swamp of irony and pastiche?

What began as a somewhat nihilistic exercise — finding a subject that I had to do constant battle with —transformed into an exploration of painting’s purpose. Having chosen cats as the ultimate “unserious” topic, I am challenging the viewer’s perceptions and expectations.