Sunday, June 29, 2008

Please Don't Tell PETA

#173 - Draw something from memory

I've been working through Julia Cameron's excellent book Vein of Gold. One of the major tasks is to analyze and write about my past. Questions are posed to help with the process. One is, what was your favorite toy, game, or pastime at ages one to five? I had an obvious answer.

My mother was a child of the depression, you see. It seems the trauma she never got out of her system was not hunger or homelessness, but a terrible lack of dolls. Ergo, she bought all of her daughters dolls aplenty, whether we liked them or not. I certainly didn't. Why would I play with something so stiff and lifeless when, as a farm kid, I was surrounded by lovely furry animals? The accessories were cool, though. And if God didn't intend for doll dresses to be put on baby cats, why did he make them perfectly kitten-sized?

I won't go so far as to claim the little furballs liked this game, but my older brother tells me he was clawed and bloodied whenever he attempted a rescue, and once undressed they would often run straight back to me for a change of costume. To this day he calls me "The Cat-Whisperer."

17 comments:

Margaret McCarthy Hunt said...

funny i just posted about doing the same thing with Keri Smiths book Living out loud

Margaret McCarthy Hunt said...

funny we used to dress up our cats in my madame alexander doll's dresses...one time one of them ran away and went hunting in a lovely blue sateen pin tucked dress...what a hoot that was...i am sure my mom wanted to kill us...

Unknown said...

I love it. All of it. Your illustration and the story to go along with it. Thanks.

Angelica said...

That kitten is darling -- and you know how I love cats ... it reminded me that the first picture my parents took of me was pushing Geeter (a large male cat) in my doll's baby carriage, dressed in my doll's clothes ... the doll was later found in the weeds in the back yard :)
My Father couldn't believe Geeter had allowed me to dress him up, and that he stayed in the pram!!
Aloha, Angelica

Margaret Ann said...

Oh! What a sweet sketch...brought back a lot of memories as well...Thanks! :)

Angie in AZ said...

This is great! And I love the story. I used to dress my cats in doll clothes too.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure which I like best: your art or your stories. Excellent!

Phyllis Hunt McGowan said...

I don't have a dressing-up-a-pet story but like you I hated dolls and grew up where next door there were goats, chickens and horses. Idyllic, I think it was.

kazumiwannabe said...

Love the drawing and story! Poor kitten... too bad he doesn't like the clothes, they really fit him well!

Janice said...

Great blog, Christie! I'm sending a link to my daughter, the real artist in the family. If we ever did that to our cat Cosby, I'd be afraid he'd take a liking to it...he likes so many un-catlike things!

Gillian Mowbray said...

Great artwork. I didn't like dolls either - how come boys got all the fun toys?
Thanks for your comment on my blog. x

Ann said...

I enjoy reading your blog and seeing your art work here. I gave you an award on my blog. Don't feel you have to participate unless you want to :)

Margaret McCarthy Hunt said...

I gave you an award on my blog. Don't feel like you have to participate unless you want to :)

Anonymous said...

Great picture and story. I confess to putting a hat and pearls on our dog for a photo op (which I painted from) But they just look so CUTE dressed up!

Mike (Creative Dialog Studios) said...

Christie-
You have been one of my mentors and I have an award for you at
http://creativedialog.blogspot.com

andrea joseph's sketchblog said...

Hehe. Love the drawing.

Lisa Adams Reed said...

How adorable--the drawing and the story!
Lisa