Picasso's "Dora Maar au Chat"

Dora Maar au Chat, 1941

(Dora Maar with a cat)

Picasso did some amazing cat paintings and I especially love the one with the cat holding a dead bird in its mouth. But this one, Dora Maar au Chat from 1941, is one of the world's most expensive paintings. (Hey, it looks like the little black cat I found!)

It sold for 92. 2 million recently, much less than Jackson Pollock's No. 5 which was 140 million or so. Does anyone understand the art market? This is my favorite thing in the world, that paintings are superior treasures and valued at prices beyond our understanding. I think it must be because paintings attempt to reveal something sacred. Maybe it reveals a place within ourselves that is beyond words. Paintings resonate with some kind of energy despite subject matter and content. Religion is all bogged down with words, rules and interpretations by your average human. But paintings are full of holy frequencies and vibrations combined with human and divine energies. How could it be otherwise? Well, what do you think? Whenever I am painting, I feel a presence around me...it is real yet unexplainable. It is like touching the divine that resides in the invisible realm...Definitely, When I paint I get into an alpha brainwave state. Supposedly, this opens us up to the whole universe...just my opinion, of course. Anybody else feel this way at times? If you are not a painter, you can reach the alpha state by watching fish in a fish tank! Anyway, I read this somewhere and it might be true.

I intend to put some paintings up here soon.

Thanks for all the interesting comments so far from writers who seem to be cats. Really glad you took the time to come by.

Kandinsky Cat Revelation

The painter Wassily Kandinsky is known as the father of abstraction. He began to let go of recognizible imagery after noticing a particularly impressive painting in his studio. He realized it was one of his own paintings but it was placed upside down and this caused him to notice a whole new world of possibility. So, I wonder if Kandinsky still painted paintings right side up and then turned them upside down for the unsuspecting art world? Maybe he did it once in awhile, or to just to get started on his own journey of pure abstraction? Well, I turned Kandinsky's painting "Red, Yellow and Blue" upside down and guess what? It is undeniably a CAT! What do you think? I don't think I am reading into this. But, I would love to have your opinion. Well, there is no doubt that artists love cats and I have seen photos of all the greats (Picasso, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt) tenderly embracing a cat. Here is the painting, first right side up and then upside down.

Yellow-Red-Blue 1925

The Upside Down Version of Yellow-Red-Blue

What do you see? I see whiskers, eyes, tail, ears and back paws. Yellow-Red-Blue is an abstracted cat to me...tricky Kandinsky!

I found a little black cat...

This little cat appeared in the garden while I was visiting a friend on the island of Cyprus this summer. He was very weak and scared but became super friendly after some food, water and petting. At first, he really liked being in with the prickly cactus. It only took him a few days to settle in to his new home and start to own the house. That was about 6 weeks ago (mid August '07) and last I heard he is doing fine and is very popular with lots of cat friends. He must be a magic cat. It was a highlight of the summer to meet him. Alas, I returned to Hong Kong and now I miss the little beast. Such a gorgeous animal. Hi Bagheera! Stay well! Love you lots! (wish he could write me).

I also met some camels in Cyprus...this one was named Daffodil or something like that.

So, the name of this blog is Fate of the Animals after a painting by one of my (many) favorite painters, Franz Marc. Unfortunately, Franz was cheated out of life by having to go to the front lines in the war. He was killed at age 36 in 1916. Lucky for us, he did a lot of painting before that and left us with his wonderful and prescient legacy. I love his paintings of blue horses. But Blue-Black Fox and The Yellow Cow always stay in my mind. I wonder if Franz could sense that the destiny of the animals might be something worrisome at the hands of humans...factory farms, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, mass production...extinction. I am so grateful I was able to see the Fate of the Animals in Basel, Switzerland back in 2004 or 2005, that was a lucky part of my destiny. Well Franz, I love animals, too.

(I wonder what is going to happen to the human animal...)

Blue-Black Fox 1911

The Yellow Cow 1911

Speaking of animal destiny, here is a poem by Pablo Neruda. It is one of my favorite poems of all times. I put it in because today, October 1st 2007, I read about the overfishing of Blue Fin Tuna in Spain. Blue Fin Tuna can accelerate faster than a Porsche II or something like that. Now they are fished and placed in underwater ranches till they are big and pricey. One Tuna can be worth up to $15,000 for sushi in Japan and the various mafia organizations in both countries handle the business. But, the business is going wrong. It is off. Less fish are showing up and they are a lot smaller. It seems that ten years of the great idea of herding Tuna in ranches is killing a once sustainable 3,000 year old fishing practice. I hope we can keep some alive to admire in the future. Read Pablo's poem. I hope you like it:

Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market

by Pablo Neruda

Among the market greens,
a bullet
from the ocean
depths,
a swimming
projectile,
I saw you,
dead.

All around you
were lettuces,
sea foam
of the earth,
carrots,
grapes,
but
of the ocean
truth,
of the unknown,
of the
unfathomable
shadow, the
depths
of the sea,
the abyss,
only you had survived,
a pitch-black, varnished
witness
to deepest night.

Only you, well-aimed
dark bullet
from the abyss,
mangled
at one tip,
but constantly
reborn,
at anchor in the current,
winged fins
windmilling
in the swift
flight
of
the
marine
shadow,
a mourning arrow,
dart of the sea,
olive, oily fish.
I saw you dead,
a deceased king
of my own ocean,
green
assault, silver
submarine fir,
seed
of seaquakes,
now
only dead remains,
yet
in all the market
yours
was the only
purposeful form
amid
the bewildering rout
of nature;
amid the fragile greens
you were
a solitary ship,
armed
among the vegetables
fin and prow black and oiled,
as if you were still
the vessel of the wind,
the one and only
pure
ocean
machine:
unflawed, navigating
the waters of death.

My next post on here will reveal an amazing discovery about a Kandinsky painting that all the Kandinsky Art Historian Experts don't know (or they have never let on to know). So, if you have an interest in Kandinsky, come back soon. I want to show you this.

D Huntoon

Art, Cats, Paintings, Abstractions, Travel, Drawings & Huntoon

Welcome to my new blog all about my art, cats, paintings, drawings, travel, abstractions and more! Come back soon to see my own artwork, paintings and more which I will be putting up for sale!!!

Art, cats, paintings, travel, abstractions, drawings and more! It's all gonna be here!

Huntoon