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museum cat, lost and found

3/20/2019

"His disappearance set all of Moscow in uproar," reported Moskva-24 local television.

"The most important member of staff at the Bulgakov museum has gone missing," reported another channel, TV Centre.

A cat, lives in a museum!

There are plenty of studio cats, but I never knew there were museum cats! Simon is my studio cat, as seen here. If you'd like to see more studio cats, go to Instagram and follow #studiocat

Click over to see the cat and read about losing and finding him, lol.

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

PS: Today is K-9 Veterans Day. Please honor those who served!

Simon, sitting on our back patio bar.

cat jumps and rips 17th century painting and how that relates to simon cat

3/13/2019

Photo: My studio cat, Simon, sitting on some of my cut out collage papers that I taped to a temporary clear plastic sheet. He can't harm these, rarer still that I placed anything on the floor, so it was a Kodak moment for us, lol.

I can't imagine how I'd feel if Simon were to rip through a painting, destroying it almost immediately, like Padme did. Padme destroyed a 17th century painting!

My first question would be "where was the painting that a cat could jump or claw it?"

Maybe it was unavoidable. Maybe the painting was leaning against the wall, which is a usual way of storing a painting. I feel for this man. Oh, I just "met" him recently, too, as I just discovered the BBC show "Fake or Fortune" in Netflix!

Cats are cats. I try to have spaces in my studio for Simon to be safe. He has his own water dish, a few cubby-like spaces where I don't mind him....I try to make sure there isn't much he can break, etc. that is easy for him to access. He has tried to drink my paint water...but he's yet to walk all over a painting because I don't leave them around for him.

As a painter, I've used paper, canvas, and wood for my designs. My favorite is wood, followed by paper, and distant last is canvas. If my cat, or yours, destroys a painting by me, maybe I can repair it...but it's probably best to simply replace it. Then again, my artwork isn't a few hundred years old, yet!

Oh, writing of wood surfaces, my pet paintings are all on wood. The worst your cat or dog can do to protest his painting is scratch it. Consider getting your cat (or dog's) portrait by getting my free book about how called "How to Hire a Pet Portrait Artist that Works for You" by clicking on this paragraph.

What would you do if your cat destroyed a piece of artwork you love?

The original article about Padme, his photo, and his painting adventure is below, with the link, too. It's totally worth a click!

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/05/bbc-art-expert-tells-rare-5000-painting-john-michael-wright/

BBC art expert reveals rare painting worth thousands of pounds was destroyed by his cat

Helena Horton
5 JANUARY 2019 • 2:06PM
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A BBC arts experts has revealed how his cat wrecked a rare masterpiece painted by one of his favourite artists.
Dr Bendor Grosvenor, who appeared in five seasons of Fake or Fortune, paid more than £5,000 for a painting by 17th century portrait artist John Michael Wright, which was clawed by his pet Padme.
He was busy restoring the artwork after two small tears had formed because a cold winter followed by a hot summer had caused a stretcher displaying the painting to move.
The 41-year-old covered the front of the painting with facing paper and brushed on a warm gelatin-and-water solution to preserve it before it could be sent to London to be relined.
However, Dr Grosvenor was left dismayed when his cat launched itself at the painting before raking its claws down the middle of the portrait to leave a large gaping hole.

Dr Bendor Grosvenor featured in five seasons of BBC's Fake or Fortune CREDIT: STUART NICOL PHOTOGRAPHY
While the painting was not completely destroyed, the repair costs are estimated to almost equal the entire purchase fee and Dr Grosvenor admitted the artwork will never return to its pristine condition.

He told The Sunday Telegraph: "I bought it in 2015 for £5,250. I probably spent the same again cleaning and reframing it.

"And as I stood back to admire my handiwork, up jumped our cat, landing forcefully in the centre of the painting with a crunch. Disaster.”

“Wright is one of my favourite artists, and I bought this example because it was in excellent condition, with all the original glazes and details wonderfully intact.

"Now, it's obviously in less good condition - but at least the cat landed on his clothing, and not his face.”

He added Padme is “not a fan of John Michael Wright, and regrets nothing.”

Dr Grosvenor has found many lost works of art in his career, including a 2017 discovery of the "lost portrait" of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham at Pollok House, Glasgow, Scotland.

It was thought to have been lost for more than 400 years.

In 2009, he bested the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's experts, finding their portrait of Charles Edward Stuart by Maurice Quentin de La Tour was in fact a portrait of Charles' brother, Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal York.

According to Tate, John Michael Wright was rated as "one of the leading indigenous British painters of his generation" for his Baroque style portraits.

Having trained as an artist in Scotland under the tutelage of George Jamesone, he moved to England permanently in 1656 where he painted Stuart kings Charles II and James II.

cafe, chocolate, and birds

3/6/2019

My first pet loves were a toy white poodle named Champagne and a baby bird we named Twitty...which we believe grew up to be Pinta Roja.

All of those are long stories. The most pertinent to this article I found about preserving endangered birds is Pinta Roja.

When Twitty disappeared, Papa and I began to feed any birds that showed up in our yard. We felt it was a guarenteed food source for Twitty, if Twitty were to return to visit us.

A beautiful red-winged blackbird, all alone, began appearing a few days after we began feeding all the birds in our yard. Pinta Roja would sing outside our kitchen window, asking to be fed. He would let us within a couple of feet of him, our arm outstretched in hopes of him hopping on to us. When we got too close, he'd hop down the power line. We spent many years feeding the birds in our yard...forever we remember Pinta Roja.

2018 marked the beginning of my consciously including birds into my artwork. I made a few silhouette stencils for our local restaurant Chefs on the Run for painting up their ladies' room back in 2014. I've making it a point to use my handmade stencils and stamps during 2019 in more paintings. Watch for more birds showing up....

In the meantime, I thought the article below was super cool about helping out our feathered friends.

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

http://artdaily.com/news/108864/Coffee-and-chocolate-could-help-preserve-endangered-birds-in-According to estimates, less than 3000 Red Siskins remain in the wild in Venezuela.

Coffee and chocolate could help preserve endangered birds in Venezuela

WASHINGTON, DC.- In Venezuela, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus), a vibrantly colored red-and-black finch, is inextricably linked with the country’s identity. It is present in poems, paintings, names of streets and sports teams and even graces the back of the 100,000 Bolivar bill, but it is rare in its natural habitat. To help reverse this, the Smithsonian and the Piedra de Cachimbo coffee farmers in northern Venezuela stepped in.

With support from the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, farmers are committing to the conservation of 400 hectares of forest for traditional shade-grown organic coffee, seeking Smithsonian Bird Friendly certification of their beans. This approach is part of the Red Siskin Initiative (RSI), an international consortium in which the Smithsonian collaborates closely with Provita, a local NGO focused on the preservation of biodiversity in Venezuela, and other partners.

This will protect the siskin’s natural habitat and increase their profits. As part of the process, they have established relationships with roasters and retailers in Caracas. Their plan, which will also protect other native birds and migrants, is embedded in the Smithsonian Conservation Commons, an action network within the Smithsonian highlighting the relevance of science and innovative interdisciplinary approaches to on-the-ground conservation.

“Farm workers can help us monitor the birds, which is a big advantage. Some of these farms also border protected areas like national parks, creating a wildlife corridor,” said Brian Coyle, Conservation Commons program manager at the Smithsonian and RSI project coordinator.

In addition to coffee, the project aims to include another agroforestry crop: cacao. The Bird Friendly certification standards for cacao are currently being developed by the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center, which created the Bird Friendly program based on decades of scientific research. Currently, the RSI is producing a red siskin-branded chocolate bar made from organically sourced cacao. The profits go back to farmers, research and RSI conservation efforts.

This initiative has also achieved a better understanding of illegal bird trafficking networks, which will allow for more focused preventive actions, based on research led by Ada Sanchez-Mercado at Provita and Kate Rodriguez-Clark at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park. One proposed solution is to supply enough captive-bred birds to fulfill the demand, an approach that proved effective with other bird species. For this, the RSI partners with private breeders in the United States and Australia who help figure out how to best breed the red siskin in captivity.

“We could lose the red siskin in 10 years if we do nothing about it,” said Miguel Arvelo, RSI coordinator for Venezuela and conservationist at Provita. “If we lose this bird, we will have lost part of what it means to be Venezuelan.”

Additional components of the RSI include genetics, animal husbandry, health and breeding research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, SCBI and the National Zoo.

“In 20 or 30 years we envision a flock of dozens of beautiful red birds flying against the bright blue sky,” Coyle said. “It would be inspiring for the people in Venezuela and elsewhere, knowing that conservation does work and getting their support for more of it. Conservation can’t succeed if the community doesn’t get behind it.”

Selfies, sketches, and memories

2/27/2019

Apparently, this little cat's selfie has bubbles in her photo. Oh, well. This one is at her forever home, anyway, lol.

In a world full of selfies, I take very few selfies.

In a world full of photos taken with our smart phones, I'm the one with my sketchbook open, pen in hand.

Andy & I have some spectacular vacation photos. Our trip to Alaska in 2018 was incredibly fun and exciting. I took about 1,200 photos compared to his 5,000(?). Not a single one has been printed. My sketchbook, however, has all sorts of drawings, colors, impressions. I open it and my memories come back like I'm in the Jeep, on the road.

Here's another article why it's better to BE in a space instead of taking yet another photo....

Or, let me invite you to draw? Or, the less scary way, let me invite you to sketch? Get your free copy of What to Gift a Drawing Artist by clicking on this paragraph. It's full of the simple supplies, and where to get them, to get you started to sketch.

The original article is below my signature.

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

https://globalnews.ca/news/4815751/commentary-photos-memories/
COMMENTARY: Our obsession with taking photos is changing how we remember the past
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Last year I visited the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia — one of the best art museums in the world. I was expecting to serenely experience its masterpieces, but my view was blocked by a wall of smartphones taking pictures of the paintings. And where I could find a bit of empty space, there were people taking selfies to create lasting memories of their visit.

For many people, taking hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures is now a crucial part of going on holiday — documenting every last detail and posting it on social media. But how does that affect our actual memories of the past — and how we view ourselves? As an expert on memory, I was curious.
Unfortunately, psychological research on the topic is so far scant. But we do know a few things. We use smartphones and new technologies as memory repositories. This is nothing new — humans have always used external devices as an aid when acquiring knowledge and remembering.
Writing certainly serves this function. Historical records are collective external memories. Testimonies of migrations, settlement or battles help entire nations trace a lineage, a past and an identity. In the life of an individual, written diaries serve a similar function.

Memory effects
Nowadays we tend to commit very little to memory – we entrust a huge amount to the cloud. Not only is it almost unheard of to recite poems, even the most personal events are generally recorded on our cellphones. Rather than remembering what we ate at someone’s wedding, we scroll back to look at all the images we took of the food.
This has serious consequences. Taking photos of an event, rather than being immersed in it, has been shown to lead to poorer recall of the actual event — we get distracted in the process.
Relying on photos to remember has a similar effect. Memory needs to be exercised on a regular basis in order to function well. There are many studies documenting the importance of memory retrieval practice -- for example in university students. Memory is and will remain essential for learning. There is indeed some evidence showing that committing almost all knowledge and memories to the cloud might hinder the ability to remember.
However, there is a silver lining. Even if some studies claim that all this makes us more stupid, what happens is actually shifting skills from purely being able to remember to being able to manage the way we remember more efficiently. This is called metacognition, and it is an overarching skill that is also essential for students — for example when planning what and how to study. There is also substantial and reliable evidence that external memories, selfies included, can help individuals with memory impairments.
But while photos can in some instances help people to remember, the quality of the memories may be limited. We may remember what something looked like more clearly, but this could be at the expense of other types of information. One study showed that while photos could help people remember what they saw during some event, they reduced their memory of what was said.

Identity distortions?
There are some rather profound risks when it comes to personal memory. Our identity is a product of our life experiences, which can be easily accessed through our memories of the past. So, does constant photographic documentation of life experiences alter how we see ourselves? There is no substantial empirical evidence on this yet, but I would speculate that it does.
Too many images are likely to make us remember the past in a fixed way — blocking other memories. While it is not uncommon for early childhood memories to be based on photos rather than the actual events, these are not always true memories.
Another issue is the fact that research has uncovered a lack of spontaneity in selfiesand many other photos. They are planned, the poses are not natural and at times the image of the person is distorted. They also reflect a narcissistic tendency which shapes the face in unnatural mimics — artificial big smiles, sensual pouts, funny faces or offensive gestures.

Watch: selfies and the psyche
The connection between social media and plastic surgery
Importantly, selfies and many other photos are also public displays of specific attitudes, intentions and stances. In other words, they do not really reflect who we are, they reflect what we want to show to others about ourselves at the moment. If we rely heavily on photos when remembering our past, we may create a distorted self identity based on the image we wanted to promote to others.
That said, our natural memory isn’t actually perfectly accurate. Research shows that we often create false memories about the past. We do this in order to maintain the identity that we want to have over time — and avoid conflicting narratives about who we are. So if you have always been rather soft and kind — but through some significant life experience decide you are tough — you may dig up memories of being aggressive in the past or even completely make them up.
Having multiple daily memory reports on the phone of how we were in the past might therefore render our memory less malleable and less adaptable to the changes brought about by life — making our identity more stable and fixed.
But this can create problems if our present identity becomes different from our fixed, past one. That is an uncomfortable experience and exactly what the “normal” functioning of memory is aimed to avoid — it is malleable so that we can have a non-contradictory narrative about ourselves. We want to think of ourselves as having a certain unchanging “core”. If we feel unable to change how we see ourselves over time, this could seriously affect our sense of agency and mental health.
So our obsession with taking photos may be causing both memory loss and uncomfortable identity discrepancies.

COMMENTARY: How a decades-long hunt for a song led to a quick lesson in human memory

It is interesting to think about how technology changes the way we behave and function. As long as we are aware of the risks, we can probably mitigate harmful effects. The possibility that actually sends shivers to my spine is that we lose all those precious pictures because of some widespread malfunctioning of our smartphones.

So the next time you’re at a museum, do take a moment to look up and experience it all. Just in case those photos go missing.

happy love your pet day

2/20/2019

Happy Love Your Pet Day!

I celebrate this day all year long, with Simon, Ghost, and Tuxie, our cats. I also celebrate pets by painting pets. Their fur and feathers are safe with me - the paint goes on canvas, lol!

I love drawing and painting cats, dogs, etc. These loving pets are a fun way to practice drawing while creating a special gift for someone. A painting is also way to enjoy the memory of these special personalities!

If you'd love to see your pet in paint on a canvas, you can learn more about how by getting my free ebook How to Hire a Pet Portrait Artist that Works for You! Click on this paragraph or on the button below.

I want my book! How to Hire Pet Portrait Artist

Happy valentines day and pet theft awareness day

2/13/2019

Eekee Birds in Love, 8x8inches, mixedmedia on canvasboard, 2016, by Angeline Marie Martinez

Tomorrow, February 14th, is also Pet Theft Awareness Day.

I don't want to imagine if Simon, or Ghost, or Tuxie disappeared because of theft. Could you imagine if you knew your pet was stolen, just because?

The painting I chose for this day shows two imaginary birds that I call "Eekees," with a little heart in the middle and some birds flying above them. The colors are a little brighter than in the photo, but this was a difficult one to photo, lol.

Please enjoy your day!

Reuse- reduce- recycle art supplies and bags

2/6/2019

Do you reuse, reduce, recycle?

I drive Andy crazy sometimes with recycling. We try to use the reusable bags as much as possible, reuse any plastic bags, recycle any plastic bags we can't or won't reuse.

A few friends during a recent fire and friends night we hosted discussed our use of plastic bags. I remembered this article. It takes 1,000 uses to cancel out the energy/effort it took to make a reusable bag.

I look for ways to reuse, reduce, and recycle in my painting studio. I use the dried acrylic paint to make new work (see my Goofy Cats here). I reuse plastic jars for paint water. I use old towels for rags. I use laminating film "waste" for stencils and sketchbook covers and Red Lucky Cat art drops. Scraps of paper go into a collage pile. Boxes are painted over and used to ship. You get the idea, lol.

If I use a bag daily, it would take almost 3 years. Hmmm. I have only one bag I can think has earned its existence, lol! It's a pink backpack I take to my job that I only remember it was $20 on sale and bought years ago. Can you think of a bag that belongs to you that's maybe used 1,000 times or more? Like to read more? Here's the link: Are Reusable Bags Really Better for the Planet?

Photo is of two paint water jars I used in my studio for almost 15 years! They are now in the recycle process as they had the "3" tag on them, lol! They fell and finally broke and cracked in December, 2018. I'm sad they are gone - but I am using my saved back ups, lol!

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

cats, cats, and more cats but in books not boots

1/30/2019

'Cats on the Page' opens at the British Library

I love cats, in case you hadn't noticed.

I do love dogs...just my experiences with dogs are limited to enjoying dogs that belong to other people, lol.

The link is about an exhibit held in England about cats in literature, specifically their illustrations. Cat illustrations from a few hundred years ago were included. If I lived closer, this would've been a definite exhibit to enjoy!

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

Below painting is That is My Blanket Collage Cat, acrylics on wood panel, 6 by 6 inches, available for your home.

Topaz, the texan cat

1/23/2019

Topaz is the newest addition to the DB & SB home in Texas. She's also had the pleasure of adding her portrait to their collection, too! I had the honor of painting Stormy, Nakita, Cira, and Rascal before Topaz came into their lives.

If you'd love to have your Best Furry Friend painted just for you, you can review my free ebook How to Hire a Pet Portrait Artist that Works for You. The little ebook has all about what you might wonder about how to even start asking an artist to paint your BFF! You can get it by clicking on this paragraph.

As always, smiles with paint on my hands,
Angeline

Free Book: How to Hire a Pet Portrait Artist

Printer recreats exact copies of masterpiece artworks

1/16/2019

smart-news/new-technique-could-revolutionize-future-art-reproduction

This is all about a 3D printer that will re-create almost like for like reproductions of master artworks.

If I could use this printer, I'm not crazy about reproducing an artwork...but can you imagine if it can be used to make 3D reproductions of us, like photos but 3D?

Given the technology’s lengthy printing time and limited ink library, the chances of spotting a RePaint-generated replica in a museum gift shop, on a gallery wall, or in a book anytime soon are low. Still, the technique holds great promise, and once it’s perfected, you may find ostensibly indiscernible versions of Vincent van Gogh's “Starry Night” and Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa” popping up all over the place.

Of course, I wouldn't mind an almost perfect copy of Van Gogh, too, lol.

Your thoughts?

Smiles with paint on my hands,
Angeline

PS: The seahorse is a 2010 painting by me! It's encaustic paint on wood panel. Can you imagine if it was recreated with this printer? You can get the original - just please email me at angeline dot angelinemarie dot net if you'd really love it for your space. It's smaller than 8x10 inches.

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