Lifestyle

Mr. Whiskers is ready for his close-up: When an artist’s pet is also their muse

Published

1 year ago

February 21, 2023

Mr. Whiskers is ready for his close-up: When an artist’s pet is also their muse

Joan Brown’s Joan + Donald, 1982, Oil enamel on canvas, 72 1/4 x 60 in. (183.5 x 152.4 cm), assortment of Adam Lindemann

Venus Over Manhattan, New York

conceal caption

toggle caption

Venus Over Manhattan, New York

Joan Brown’s Joan + Donald, 1982, Oil enamel on canvas, 72 1/4 x 60 in. (183.5 x 152.4 cm), assortment of Adam Lindemann

Venus Over Manhattan, New York

On the San Francisco Museum of Fashionable Artwork (SFMOMA), there is a charming self-portrait of the artist Joan Brown hugging Donald, her resplendent tabby cat.

Is Mittens your muse? Share your pet-inspired artwork with NPR

“She is holding onto Donald so tightly,” SFMOMA affiliate curator of portray and sculpture Nancy Lim stated just lately whereas touring the museum’s present main retrospective of the late San Francisco artist. “It isn’t simply an embrace. It is one thing extra.”

On daily basis, hundreds of thousands of individuals around the globe put up footage and movies of their pets on-line. In accordance with a current OnePoll survey, one in 4 folks within the U.S. have social media accounts for his or her furry buddies. However the custom of making and sharing such pictures goes again about 300 years in portray and sculpture.

Artist Sahar Khoury together with her canine Esther, 2018. The Oakland, Calif.-based sculptor has created many artworks that includes Esther and her different pets.

Tommy Lau/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts

conceal caption

toggle caption

Tommy Lau/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts

Artist Sahar Khoury together with her canine Esther, 2018. The Oakland, Calif.-based sculptor has created many artworks that includes Esther and her different pets.

Tommy Lau/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts

Brown painted dozens of images of her pets between the Sixties and ’80s. The cats and canine in her works appear fully-present, self-aware and all-knowing; in Joan + Donald (1982), the feline has an particularly frank look in his huge, yellow eyes.

“Joan thought of him very clever,” stated Lim. “Somebody who might keep on human dialog, if he might.”

Donald was greater than a detailed companion to Brown. Lim stated he was additionally a enterprise asset.

“She determined to record him as an earnings deduction, as a result of he was a live-in mannequin,” Lim stated.

The IRS audited the artist for deducting cat meals and vet payments on her tax return, however Brown efficiently argued her case. And Lim stated her cat thereafter earned himself a nickname.

“Her buddies known as him ‘Donald the Deductible,’ ” she stated.

A part of an artist’s every day life

Sahar Khoury stated she’s impressed with Joan Brown’s chutzpah.

“I am so fearful of the IRS,” the Oakland-based artist stated. “I will not even declare my fuel.”

How Dogs Evolved Into 'Our Best Friends'

Khoury toured the Joan Brown exhibition together with her service animal Esther, an lovely, curly-haired, floppy-eared, white mutt.

“She’s at the moment round 14 and travels with me in every single place I’m going,” Khoury stated. “She unwillingly has turn into part of my work.”

Over time, Khoury has crafted many sculptures that includes her pets, together with a fantastical, circus-style pyramid of 15 glazed ceramic Esthers perching on every others’ backs. Khoury stated that similar to Joan Brown, her pets — she additionally has a cat/artist’s mannequin named Lola — are a part of her on a regular basis panorama.

Sahar Khoury’s Untitled (15 Esthers in pyramid on bone aid plinth), 2018, Glazed ceramic, metal, cement, resin

Charlie Villyard/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts

Advertisement

conceal caption

toggle caption

Charlie Villyard/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts

Sahar Khoury’s Untitled (15 Esthers in pyramid on bone aid plinth), 2018, Glazed ceramic, metal, cement, resin

Charlie Villyard/Yerba Buena Middle for the Arts

“You are simply archiving your every day life,” Khoury stated. “And I am unable to think about not having the animals be part of that.”

A contemporary Western custom

The historical past of artists drawing inspiration from non-human animals goes again to the start of the historical past of artwork.

“However making portraits of pets actually is a extra trendy phenomenon and largely within the Western world,” stated Alan Braddock, a professor on the School of William and Mary in Virginia who research depictions of animals in artwork.

Braddock stated the custom is rooted in Western philosophical notions of human individualism — which result in the the concept pets are fully-realized beings quite than simply “dumb animals.”

William Hogarth’s The Painter and his Pug, 1745, Tate, London, bought 1824

Tate Pictures

conceal caption

toggle caption

Tate Pictures

William Hogarth’s The Painter and his Pug, 1745, Tate, London, bought 1824

Tate Pictures

One of many earliest examples is the British satirical artist William Hogarth’s 1745 self-portrait titled The Painter and his Pug. Within the somber-toned portray, the artists poses formally within the background, whereas the pug — named Trump — stands up entrance along with his tongue protruding on the viewer.

“Hogarth cherished his canine, and noticed the canine as a sort of emblem of his personal pugnaciousness as an artist,” Braddock stated.

Who Says You Can't Train A Cat? A Book Of Tips For Feline-Human Harmony

Different artists adopted go well with. Pablo Picasso made research of Lump, an adored dachshund; Frida Kahlo’s catalogue is filled with self-portraits that includes her pet monkeys and parrots.

“She admired animals’ creativity and noticed it as a mirrored image of her personal,” Braddock stated of the famed twentieth century Mexican artist.

Artists who painting different folks’s pets

Some artists who paint different folks’s pets really feel this similar sense of affinity.

Jesse Freidin labored as knowledgeable canine photographer for 15 years, and is probably greatest recognized for a collection of portraits he made in 2010 of various canines dressed up as Girl Gaga — The Doggie Gaga Undertaking.

“I wasn’t simply photographing canine,” Freidin stated. “I used to be photographing relationships and learning folks.”

Three pictures from The Doggie Gaga Undertaking, a collection of portraits from 2010 that includes canine posing in Lada Gaga outfits by Jesse Freidin.

Jesse Freidin

Advertisement

conceal caption

toggle caption

Jesse Freidin

Three pictures from The Doggie Gaga Undertaking, a collection of portraits from 2010 that includes canine posing in Lada Gaga outfits by Jesse Freidin.

Jesse Freidin

Freidin stated the artwork he makes with canine goals to get at one thing deeper than cuteness, although the Doggie Gagas are admittedly very cute.

“I do not need to put myself in entrance of the digicam,” Freidin stated. “However I do need to articulate one thing about my human situation and expertise. An animal turns into this exterior illustration. And it is highly effective.”

Joan Brown runs on the San Francisco Museum of Fashionable Artwork by way of March 12, 2023. It then goes on to the Carnegie Museum of Artwork, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Could 27–Sep. 24, 2023) and the Orange County Museum of Artwork, Costa Mesa, Calif. (Feb. 7–Could 1, 2024).

Audio and digital tales edited by Jennifer Vanasco. Audio produced by Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento. Digital produced by Beth Novey.

Lifestyle

There's only one Trump question in this week's news quiz. But can you answer it?

Published

3 hours ago

May 31, 2024

Press Room

There's only one Trump question in this week's news quiz. But can you answer it?

From left: Sonequa Martin-Green, Xiao Qi Ji, RFK Jr.

Arturo Holmes/Getty Images; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Ian Maule/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Arturo Holmes/Getty Images; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Ian Maule/Getty Images

This week, there was an unusual amount of air travel news: bad, sad, heartwarming and perhaps unnecessary. After Memorial Day security lines, clearly audiences had a thirst for more airport-adjacent content!

But no one cared after around 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, because the Trump verdict came in.

If your brain survived that and the three-day weekend, maybe you can get that 11/11 this week.

Lifestyle

Kris Jenner, Faye Resnick Recall Last Conversations with Nicole Brown Simpson

Published

3 hours ago

May 31, 2024

Press Room

Kris Jenner, Faye Resnick Recall Last Conversations with Nicole Brown Simpson

A+E networks/Bunim Murray

Kris Jenner and Faye Resnick are remembering their late friend Nicole Brown Simpson … detailing their last interactions with her before she was tragically murdered.

The two women opened up about their last words with Nicole for the new Lifetime documentary, “The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” … revealing she was focused on helping Faye get sober rather than her own problems in 1994.

The way Faye tells it, she relapsed just two days before Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman were killed … and, it was actually NBS who worked on putting Resnick into rehab.

Faye says the act of grace made her realize just how much Nicole loved her … and, Kris goes into further detail, saying Nicole actually made schedules for their friends to visit Faye to keep her on the straight and narrow.

Nicole Brown and OJ Simpson

Kris says Nicole wanted to ensure Faye felt supported during the difficult period … adding she went to visit Resnick the day before she died. Kris says she called her after — check out the clip to hear about the last words they exchanged … it’s pretty haunting and heartbreaking.

A+E Networks/Bunim Murray

The pair both gave wide-ranging interviews ahead of the 30th anniversary of Nicole’s death. Remember, during the same doc, Faye drops the bombshell claim O.J. Simpson stalked Nicole before her death.

Cops arrested O.J. on murder charges, kicking off “The Trial of the Century” and the controversial verdict at the end. The topic has received renewed interest because of the milestone anniversary and Simpson’s death last month.

“The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” premieres on Lifetime this weekend … and, we expect more powerful moments to come.

Lifestyle

Life advice of the month: On exes, jet lag and guilt

Published

10 hours ago

May 31, 2024

Press Room

Life advice of the month: On exes, jet lag and guilt

Becky Harlan/NPR; Tanja Ivanova/Getty Images; Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Becky Harlan/NPR; Tanja Ivanova/Getty Images; Getty Images

It’s our favorite time of the month — rounding up surprising and useful tricks, tips and life hacks from Life Kit episodes.

This month’s selection includes advice about kids and social media, how to minimize jet lag and high-fiber diets.

To decide whether you’re ready to be friends with your ex, ask yourself if you’re in a healthy place. If you’re reaching out to your ex because you still desire them and are hoping to get back together, “wait until those feelings subside,” says psychologist Marisa Franco. You’ll know you’ve reached an appropriate level of emotional distance when you want your ex to be happy regardless of whether or not their life includes you, says Franco.

To form memories that you’ll keep, make them as multi-sensory and detailed as possible. “Plenty of evidence suggests that memory is better the more detail is available to us,” says Monica Thieu, a researcher in human cognition and a four-time Jeopardy! contestant. “So any time you have an opportunity to learn something in a richer way, do it.” What Thieu means is, incorporate as many different senses, emotions and mediums into your memory as you can. Immerse yourself in that subject.

Are you being made to feel guilty about something that’s not your fault? Clinical psychologist Han Ren offers a script of what you can say to the person making you feel this way: “You are entitled to your emotions, but it’s not my fault. I love you, but I love me too.”

Not sure if you’re north, south, east or west from home? Pick a few landmarks in town to help orient yourself. The ideal landmark is large and far away, like a big sign, a highway, a tall building or a bridge “so it can serve as a better cue to orientation,” says Mary Hegarty, a cognitive psychologist at the Spatial Thinking Lab at University of California, Santa Barbara.

When posting about your kids on social media, follow a “holiday card-or-less” rule of thumb. “They should be updates you’d be comfortable with anyone, from your great aunt to your boss, seeing. Information that’s not going to embarrass anybody and isn’t particularly private,” says Leah Plunkett, a faculty member at Harvard Law School who specializes in children, family law and technology.

If a loved one asks to borrow money from you, don’t ask for that money back. If you have the funds and want to help out, give it to them as a gift instead, says personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary. That way, you don’t have to worry about the borrower paying you back or what to do if they don’t.

A fun and cheap way to have fun this summer? Swap houses with a friend or family member. Perhaps you know someone who lives in a different neighborhood or city you’ve wanted to visit. “You can get a feel of what they like. If they have a pool, you can take a dip or check out their DVD collection,” says personal finance writer Nicole Dow. “That’s a low-cost alternative to taking a full-fledged vacation.”

If you’re going on a big, international trip, load up on sleep before you travel. To mitigate the effects of jet lag, a little preparation goes a long way, says Jade Wu, a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist and researcher at Duke University. Take supplemental naps ahead of your journey, but don’t force it if you’re not sleepy. The goal is to get as much rest as possible so that when you’re in a period of less sleep, you’ll feel a little more alert.

As you add more fiber to your diet, make sure to drink plenty of water. It can help the fiber move through your system and keep it from hardening, which can lead to more gas and constipation.

This story was edited by Meghan Keane. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and sign up for our newsletter.