It was ten years ago that I graduated from the MFA Graduate program at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History in Painting with a minor in Printmaking. If you would have told me at the time that I would be on a long hiatus from painting because I had bought a Thoroughbred gelding, I think I would have been pretty okay about that.
I feel like I have accomplished some stuff in the last ten years: getting married, 22 art shows, six solo shows, a good job making good money, home ownership with extensive remodeling, a lovely gelding, a great dog and a panoply of cats. We are back up to five cats, since the addition of Kittikins, aka, Josephine Baker. She is our second cat named for an African-American Jazz musician, the other of whom is Miles. I don't know how I feel about having black cats named after black people, it smacks a bit of condescension or subtle racism -- but one of the cats was named that by a black woman, so does that make it okay? And of course I had a Cat named Thelonious, but that was because he was a Manx, and his whole name was Thelonious Manx because I am a cheese-ball who delights in terrible puns. Humm, methinks I doth protest too much? What ever, we have another cat, who is called Kittikins, and we don't have to call her Josephine. And I graduated ten years ago. Wouldn't go back in time for nothin'. Life is sweet.
