Studio Cats

Our youngest cat, Simba, is an artist at heart. Named for the Swahili word for lion, because it would be hard to find a kitten more adventurous and courageous.  We had a devil of a time keeping him away from our unusually large (95+ lbs) greyhound when we first brought him home.  Our greyhound is so fond of cats that he thinks he himself is a cat, but he is not used to dealing with a 6-8 week old kitten, and can be a little rough.
  At 6 months of age Simba continues to approach every new situation as an adventure. He sits, barely able to keep from dipping his paws in my watercolor paint water, and watches me paint. He looks at the images and looks back at me as if to say "how did you do that?"  When I'm sculpting, he's a bit of a problem. I don't know how many times I have left a piece while I took a short break only to find Simba standing on it  and squishing his toes into the clay.  It can be frustrating, but at the same time I really love that he is so captivated by my work.  And now I must go and smooth yet another pawprint from a bowl I'm working on!

The Menagerie

I always get asked about what inspires me, what's my muse?   Usually, it's some type of animal or plant.  I've got a very active butterfly garden that always teeming with butterflies and caterpillars.  I try to bring one or two caterpillars inside when I see them so that I can watch out for them and then enjoy their miraculous change.  In the garden, the birds and stray garden cats that I have feed seem to have called a truce, the cats barely giving the birds a glance as they stop in for a drink at the bird bath.    Lizards of green and brown languidly bask in the sun, quick to dart away if one of the garden cats gets too close.  These are my animals that come and go as they please, but I know them and love them as if they were pets.

When I go inside,  I've got lots more to inspire me.  We have a greyhound we've adopted, Yorkie (Naughty NuYorker).  He's never really naughty and to be honest, he's no "yorkie". Weighing in at about 95 lbs he's our biggest baby.  We've had him a year now, and he's almost 3.  He's pretty mellow overall, very good about telling us he needs to go out, sometimes too interested in the cats, but not so much that it gets him in trouble.

Our cats are an interesting group, we have Shadow the patriarch.  A beautiful blue and cream tabby who loves to greet guests. He's 10 years old now, but still plays like a kitten.

Then we have our little girl kitty, Ginger. She's a red tabby British shorthair mix.  She's a bit of a diva, but loves to be petted.  She's almost 9 years old.

Jake is our Maine Coon mix kitty, he inherited the looks, but not the bravado. He's 16 lbs, but terrified of the 8 lb Ginger.

Recently, we adopted two more kitties from the pound.  We have a pretty large house so actually people might find it hard to believe we have one cat, let alone five.  They seem to all like to sleep under the same bed so they are fairly easy to find.

 Yoshi is one of our new kitties.  He's a flame point  Siamese (colorpoint shorthair) . He had been waiting 4 months to find a home.  He's an young adult, only 18 months old, such a sweet boy.

Fuji is the baby of the group, I'm thinking about 3 months old.  He's a chocolate lynx point ragdoll mix, he's such a sweet cuddler with the softest fur I've ever felt.  He has really interesting markings--reminds me of a Siberian husky dog.

Alice (held firmly yet lovingly, by my oldest son, Austen) is our big beefy Flemish Giant rabbit.  At 4 months she already weighs 12 lbs.  She loves to chase cats and shake her plastic toys in her mouth...growling. I imagine that when she's full sized (possibly 20 lbs) this will be quite alarming.

We've got doves, lizards, snakes, frogs, toads, and fish as well--each with their  own interesting personality! It's easy to find inspiration everywhere thanks to all my sweet animal friends!