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.
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