Iteration 1 - A Cat Joke About Art
A 150-Year-Old Cat Joke - That’s Really About ART
Part of what I intend to do on this site (and in my work) is to speak of what I show with my paintings….and to show what I speak of. And, in the process, I hope to find a way to balance those two modes of experience and expression.
With respect to the two modes, I’ll cite my teacher, the late Mary Todd Beam, who told a joke that she learned from her Grandmother. Mary - who won the National Watercolor competition more than once and who wrote multiple books while teaching lots of students, including me, recently died at 91 after passing along a lot of wisdom, experience, and encouragement.
Here’s Mary’s joke:
A mother cat was outside watching her kittens play. One of them strayed into the neighbor’s yard and a ferocious German Shepard chased after it, growling and snapping. Terrified, the kitten fled back to his mother.
She purred, nuzzled her frighten little one, and confidently proclaimed,
“Children, let me show you how to handle this.”
She then strolled over to the fence.
Menacingly, the neighbor’s dog charged again, snarling; teeth bared, hair standing on end.
Mother Cat calmly puffed herself up, continued sauntering toward him, and, in the loudest, deepest voice she could muster, barked,
“WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!”
The dog immediately, dropped to the ground, cowered, then submissively slunk away, tail between his legs.
Quite satisfied, Mother Cat turned back to her kittens and pronounced,
“Children, that’s the advantage to being bilingual.”
That’s the aim….some words, some paint, some clarifying articulation of both.
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