Of deconstructed cats and collages

"The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things ..."

The collage class is moving into its final weeks. Besides some assigned small things, I have completed two projects -- the Western Tanager and the John of the Cross mystery bookcover, mentioned in earlier posts. I have been working on one with a Dodd family theme, and I have the basic design done but I am having trouble getting the physical bits to stick together on the substrate. That one may have to wait until I can devote a bit more time to it.

Kris, who is overseeing the class, wants us to start thinking about our final project. I had been playing around with bits about cats lately and threw together a simple little thing this afternoon called Macavity's Not There! You may recognize the title either from the line in T.S. Eliot's poem, "Macavity - The Mystery Cat" or from the song that appears in the musical Cats.

The first stanza goes like this:

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw--
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there!

Here is a picture of the initial mockup of the collage. I haven't decided yet whether to leave the music there as a reference to the musical or maybe to cut the shape of the cat completely through the back so that Macavity will literally not be there. I may add some catprints around the edge on the map and perhaps a red ribbon with a bell where the cat's neck should be, whether the music remains or not. Still thinking.

And I need to spell Macavity right! That's what I get for writing that out by memory instead of checking first. And write on a more interesting piece of paper.

As for the deconstructed  cat, I am thinking for my final project of putting together a large number of photos of Sundance, taken from all angles, and laying them out in a sort of cubist way -- face on in the middle, to each side photos from that side, above photos taken from above and below photos taken from behind. Not in a cat shape, more cruciform, maybe. I have been trying to get photos of her all day and she is making herself uncooperative in the way of cats. Once I get a bunch of photos together, it may turn out to be a bad idea anyway. But it's something.