Cats, Eggheads

And the soul of society

One morning I awakened thinking about cats and the new blue ink I got recently. So during breakfast I did ink and wash drawings of cats.

Breakfast is a little less leisurely nowadays (less time to sketch) as I'm busy with preparation for a one-person fine art exhibit of my artwork - both 2d and 3d - at the Caplan Art Designs Gallery in Portland Oregon. My exhibit opening reception is Oct 3 and my exhibit is called Figures Of Speech 2.0. Subscribers got an early look at my 2d artwork here.

For all of my artwork I've been thinking of how we learn languages and phrases from other people. Those phrases can become our linguistic habits and habits of mind. So what happens when I examine curiously the content of ready-made language like cliches and idioms? What if I take the content of ready-made language and look at it as if it's unfamiliar? That's what I've done for my exhibit; I've taken phrases that are common to me and played with them visually, using ink, gouache and acrylic.

For my 3d sculptures I'm also playing with (punning with) familiar formats: a scientific museum display/collection, a children's picture puzzle block, one of the kitchen staples and a picture book.

I've done this in order to, hopefully, share with you a surprise of recognition and perhaps a laugh.

Today I'm giving you an early peek at one of my sculptures that I've titled “Eggheads”. I've taken a dozen solid wood eggs and egg cups, painted each one by hand using acrylic and displayed them on a wooden egg rack.

I’ve been thinking about how the word “Egghead” is often used to tease or even intimidate smart people. Yet I think of how essential smart, creative, educated people are to having a functioning society of any kind. Smart people are the staples of civilization kind of like eggs are a staple in a working kitchen – whether that “kitchen” is a hot-plate in a dorm room or a 5-star professional restaurant. There are many foods that simply aren’t possible without an egg. Many things that make life smooth in a community – whether a small rural town or a big metropolitan city – simply aren’t possible without people sharing their skills with whatever it is that they’re smart in.

One person doesn’t have to know everything or be smart about everything in the world, they just need to be smart within their own capacity – they just need to be a good egg. A functional society has a lot of good eggs.

This is why I’m working on my sculpture “Eggheads” using the format of a kitchen staple.

Here's a closer look…

I'm hoping that the people who come to my art opening will actually play with the eggs mixing and matching the heads and bodies.

I can imagine the individual Eggheads being a spot of humor on someone's shelf.

Here's a video of me playing with the Eggheads so you can see the kind of play I hope will happen in the gallery.

Breakfast another morning found me drawing these strange creatures and writing the quote.

During another morning I drew a cat muralist at work painting a strange bird being and making notes about resilience.

I hope you find and create many reasons to smile this weekend.

If you're a newly paid subscriber (welcome! And thank you!) did you know there are now 20 books, available here, that I've written and illustrated that are downloadable and accessible in special ways for my subscribers? The most recent book is Doodlebugs: a collection - it relates to my upcoming fine art exhibit (opening Oct 3 !!! 😳) mentioned in this post and you're seeing it here first!

Thank you, to all of you, for your ongoing patronage and support of my work! I appreciate every one of you! Especially if you're a paid subscriber of long standing (I appreciate you to the moon and back!) as I mentioned I've updated my index list with a whopping 20 ebooks that I've written and illustrated which you can download and access anytime you wish from this link. I'll keep adding more…
Thank you again for being here!! 💚💚

P.S. A children's book about cats that I wrote and illustrated, titled Numpurrs, is 15% off at Blurb‌.‌com from September 13 to 15! Just use the code READMORE15 when you checkout at this link. Here's a look at the book cover… all those cats!!!