Petey Motherwell

See any similarities?

Deck the halls

This weekend we got started on our Christmas decorating, with some help from Petey.

Election night guest

Last night while watching the election coverage on TV, I heard rustling in the chimney above the living room fireplace. Too early for Santa Claus. I was concerned it might be our cat Petey, but I checked and he was slumbering in his bed. The rustling ceased and I again became engrossed in the doings on TV.

Later on, more rustling, and there was Petey, sniffing around the fireplace grille. Then suddenly a small brown/gray form shot from the fireplace, followed closely by Petey in hot pursuit. At first I thought it was a rat, but he had a bushy gray tail.

The poor little guy was finally cornered in the kitchen -- it was a flying squirrel! We managed to sequester Petey in the bathroom and urge the flying squirrel out through the garage.

Not long afterward, Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech. A very dramatic night, all in all!

I had just been reading about animal guides in "Ask Your Guides" by Sonia Choquette. I tried looking up the symbolism of flying squirrels online, but all the information I found was about "regular" squirrels. So who knows if this was a deeply significant event ... or just a cold squirrel investigating a warm chimney?

A comforting little ball of fur

For those of us who are stressing about the state of the economy, soaring health care costs, the upcoming election, and everything else there is to worry about (and that probably includes everyone reading this), here's a little photo to remind you that there are still good things in the world.

My niece's little old calico cat died last month after a long and happy life, and naturally my niece was devastated at losing her beloved companion. For her birthday last week, her parents brought her this little kitten, who promptly made herself right at home:

Consulting the cat

Need reliable, free legal or career advice? Your best resource is your cat.

I have found that my cat, Petey, will "voice" his opinion by his reaction to printed documents that I put on my bed, his favorite place to sleep.

Once time, I had printed out information on a job I was considering applying for. I brought the paper up to bed along with a book and a magazine, planning to look through them and reread the job description before I fell asleep. Petey immediately spied the job page lying beside me on the bedspread, and he sat down beside it and began chewing at the edges. He eventually shredded the whole document.

What more of a sign do I need, I thought. I never applied for that job, and later was very glad I didn't. As it turned out, Petey was right; it wouldn't have been a good career move for me.

Last night I printed out a contract I was considering signing, and brought it upstairs to bed with me, along with some other reading matter, figuring I'd reread it one more time before I fell asleep. Petey took one look at the contract pages sitting on the bed, and curled up contentedly in a ball on top of them. Needless to say, I plan to sign and send in the contract immediately.

The above photo is one of many Petey pics taken by my husband, Kevin Seward.

Hey, baby, what's your sign?

Just because the Robin Family has moved on, doesn't mean we no longer have a wild winged menagerie to admire.

We saw quite an eyefull out in the backyard yesterday. This tremendous Tom Turkey was strutting his stuff for a group of nearby turkey hens! His feathers were puffed way out, and every few seconds he would make a quarter-turn, so that the ladies could admire his impressive physique from all angles. Every once in a while, he would flap his giant wings. Quite a show!

Sort of the turkey equivalent of John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever" (minus the gold chains).

My husband Kevin made a video of the exhibition, posted on his blog.

Apparently our neighborhood has been a wild turkey hangout for more than a decade, ever since one of the neighbors decided he had tired of his turkey farm and unceremoniously ushered all of his birds out into the street and left them to their own devices.

If Tom is any indication, their descendants will be strutting proudly for generations to come.

Feathering the nest

Robin Family Update: The baby robins whose family who has taken up residence in our rhododendron bush are growing up! Their fluffy coats have been replaced by feathers, and their breasts are speckled with brown in anticipation of the bright red to come.

This photo was taken by my husband just a few days ago, and today they have started exploring the area outside the nest! Just perching among the bush branches, so far, but they’ll be trying their wings before long.

In other news, today I received a lovely letter from Janet E. Garvey, the United States Ambassador to Cameroon, thanking me for loaning my work through the ART In Embassies Program. She wrote, “I wish you could see how lovely your ‘Twist’ and ‘Pucker’ look in my dining room. I can tell you that visitors to the residence are delighted to see such terrific examples of contemporary American art.”

I was thrilled to receive this letter. Totally made my day … well, year. Here are the two paintings on loan and currently hanging in the ambassador's residence in Africa.

Happy Mother's Day

I thought this picture was a good one for today, because it shows how devoted mothers are. Photographed by my husband Kevin, it shows the robin family who have taken up residence in the rhododendron bush outside our living room window. Look at all those demanding kids (four, to be exact), and Mom patiently feeds each one and then heads off in search of another worm for the second course.

(Or maybe that's a Dad robin. Well, let's wait until Father's Day to praise Dad.)

Anyway, here's to Moms everywhere today -- thank you for your love and care. This picture is of my beloved Mom and me, when I was 1 and my mother was 27. Frankly, I think I have the BEST, most beautiful Mom on the planet.

Spring nativity

My husband Kevin took this delightful picture of the baby lamb and proud Mom that we saw at Old Sturbridge Village today. More of Kevin's photos can be seen here.

You can tell by my rosy cheeks that it was COLD and WINDY today! But that's spring in New England. Suddenly it will jump into the 70s, and we'll be wondering what happened as we change from down jackets into our T-shirts.

Christmas cat nap

I know this is an ART blog, but the only thing that’s going on in my studio this week is cleaning and sorting, which doesn’t make for very exciting photography.

So here’s a picture of my cat, Petey, taken by my husband, Kevin.

You’d think a cat who has several expensive pet beds (not to mention the run of the house) would choose a more comfortable place to sleep than in the shoebox storing his cat toys. Here he’s sleeping on top of cold metal jingly balls, stabbing pipe cleaners, and lumpy catnip mice – not very cushion-y. But who can fathom the preferences of a kitty-cat?