"Sully The Monster Cat"

I am hosting an unexpected house guest.  Now, as Benjamin Franklin wrote: "House guests, like fish, begin to stink after three days" I am being a bit wary- especially since this house guest really seems to like fish! But, as this is still really just Day #1, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Curious yet? It's a cat!  not just ANY cat: the biggest cat I may have ever seen.  This cat is at least 15 pounds, extremely friendly and extremely lazy.  I had gone on a very nice day trip with Chuck to Fort Mott, part of the New Jersey Park Service www.stateparks.com/fort_mott.html  and when I returned home I got a cat surprise.  The cat must have been scared either by the quickie thunderstorm we had or by the teenagers being boisterous on my street, but he was huddled under the bush in my front yard.   When he heard me shuffling around with my keys and stuff on my front porch, he started crying (not a smart survival tactic I would think, but I guess it worked).  I figured, being summertime and still kitten season, that maybe some mother cat had dropped-off a kitten under my porch for shelter.  So, I looked under expecting a kitten, and lo and behold- one of the biggest cats I have ever met!  He came right out to me with the whole head-butting, rubbing, purring works- he really was desperate for a friend.  Well, I figured that, now that he was out and calmed down, he would probably just head off on home. Not so.

Since my Direct TV was still turned off (decided it was more important to pay the electric bill than the tv bill- priorites.) I made myself some dinner and then sat down to finally watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which I have owned for over a year and NEVER gotten to see the whole thing because something weird has come up every time  I put that movie in (hmm).

Giant cat comes up on my front porch, stands on my porch table, and starts to loudly meow at me through the window screen.  He meowed for over an hour. It kinda sounded like "Hellwoooa, heeeeellllowwwoooooa"  he was one determined kitty.

I went outside to pet him and see if, if I walked down the street in either direction, if something would jar his little memory.  He said he preferred my house, thank you very much.  While petting him I discovered that he was declawed- not so good in this woodsy neighborhood with racoons, skunks and rambunctious dogs. I told him very matter-of-factly that, if he were to come inside, he would have to submit to a flea shampooing.  He said he didn't mind.  So, I locked Snowy, the guinea pig away in Rory's bedroom for the night (she is away on vacation with her father for the week), and opened the front door to see what the cat would do.  He walked right in- no hesitation, so I picked him up and took him straight to the bathroom for the flea shampoo.  he seems to have forgiven me already, especially since I fed him.  I have posted him as found with a description on craigslist and at the area animal shelters and vet offices.  So far no one has called-in about loosing a cat of his description.  Now he thinks that he owns my bed- I have mixed feelings about this since I also love my bed, and having recently finished paying it off, I love it even more.  To give you a sense of scale, the pillow behind the cat is one of those gigantic European shams, not your average little wussy pillow sham.

He's such a large cat that he has already inspired lots of silly nicknames, but it seems that I have settled on calling him "Sully" while he's here; named after the John Goodman character in Monsters, Inc.  He's big, furry, a little smelly, friendly and stripy, just like "Sully."

Oh yeah- I've also started a new series of sculptural works!  They are inspired by a sermon given by our senior pastor a few weeks ago about the prophet Amos.  In the biblical scene on Amos, he holds up a plumb line to the crowd of people he's railing against and uses it as a visual teaching tool for how the God is going to measure and judge them and for how they must also measure and judge their own actions.  This inspired some really great discussion in our Young Adults Group and is still resonating with me.  The discovery of some strange metal pulley part in my studio managed to somehow link all those ideas and images together in my mind into an inspiration for this series.  I sat down with a pencil and sketchpad and in less than five minutes, had the initial sketches for three pieces. 

Here is a photo of the work in progress (please feel honored- glimpses into my messy studio, processes and sketches have been rare in the past).  Starting with a metal wire armiture I use pillow batting and thread to build up the figurative forms in much the same way that other sculptors use clay or wax.  Next they will be covered-over in fabric and then positioned into the art work.  I suppose it's a little difficult to picture right now, but I'll keep you posted.