11.6.08

Ten Years Later


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.

4.6.08

Blah x 3

Possible origin to the phrase "Cat out of the bag": On ships of yore ("yore" ... nice touch! ... setting the tone for old-timey days) Anyhow, on old sailing ships, the cat o' nine tails was stored in an elaborately decorated, often red bag. So if you did something stupid like mouth off to an Officer, you let the cat out of the bag.

Yes, that is the kind of thing that goes on in my head.