Thursday, March 28, 2024
BasilBellablack and white photoblack catscat photographsdaily photojelly beanmimi

Daily Photo: The Morning Array

Everyone look up.
Everyone look up.

Sometimes each individual cat settles in this rectangle of morning sunshine in their own comfortable posture and viewpoint, and becomes an integral part of a scene.

Then add one more. The players, from the bottom up, are Mimi, Bean, Basil and Bella.

An interesting array.
An interesting array.

. . . . . . .

What other photos did I feature around this date?

I completely forgot to add the Labor Day photos to yesterday’s (Labor Day’s) post! My feline family wants all due credit for the work they’ve done over the years!

Someone’s Got To Work Around Here, 2105
Someone has to work around here.
Someone has to work around here.

Apparently I don’t get the day off but am required to be at the service of my fine felines. But who could resist? It’s a job I love.

Later we’ll all be in the studio as I spend a little more time on a few portraits, and possibly later Mimi and I may go back outside for a little more “modeling”. And perhaps even Mewsette will join us again! She likes to come outside now and then, and she’s really excited and talks and rubs on everything. She’s really hard to get a photo of because she doesn’t stand still, but I did get one clear one this morning. Mimi is in the background, busy watching the activity in the side yard which is where the bird feeder is outside the big casement window.

Mewsette joined me and Mimi this morning in the back yard.
Mewsette joined me and Mimi this morning in the back yard.

. . . . . . .

On Instagram and Facebook this morning

Mimi and I begin our Labor Day with a little labor we both love–a modeling session in the back yard. Have a wonderful holiday!

Mimi poses on the chair.
Mimi poses on the chair.

. . . . . . .

A little more about my background

I wrote an essay on my own labor decisions between high school and college, and the impact they had on my life. I also considered how the choices I could make in the late 70s are so different from the ones students and young adults can make now.

My apron from Isaly's, and my acceptance letter from Edinboro.
My apron from Isaly’s, and my acceptance letter from Edinboro.

When I was a senior in high school I began my first full-time job as a cook at a local deli, Isaly’s in Pittsburgh. Working part-time nights and weekends until graduation I trained in the day cook’s position of opening the kitchen at 6:00 am to cook the lunch entrée and heat up the soups, open the doors of the shop at 7:00 am for the first customers wanting coffee and a pastry or a brown bag lunch to go, serve meals and beverages and offer counter help at all the stations as needed, plan the weekly lunch specials and soups and order accordingly, also using leftovers, with as little waste as possible, keeping the kitchen and walk-in freezer clean, and deep frying 50 pounds of fish every Friday for a community that still observed this particular weekly fasting menu. Whew!

If you’d like to read a little bit about how I got to where I am today, read the rest on my daily photo and writing blog “Today” entitled “My Own Labor History”.

. . . . . . .

Labor Day 2014

Labor Day With a Different Meaning
black cat on papers
Mimi is glad to hold my papers in place in return for going into labor ever again in her life.

For a cat who gave birth to six litters of kittens, “labor day” has a whole new meaning. Mimi is glad to be a paperweight and help me get work done on this particular day rather than go into labor giving birth to more kittens. I’m so glad to give her the opportunity because I really need the help!

As I moved about the house preparing merchandise and packing orders and otherwise keeping busy today, Mimi moved off to nap with her favorite feline cat bed: her daughter Mewsette.

two black cats
Mimi and Mewsette keep the envelopes cool and dry.

Meanwhile, across the room, Sunshine is upended in total relaxation, keeping yet more papers in place, and Bean and Giuseppe have inhabited Mewsette’s latest creation, which seems to be okay with her, at least for today.

three black cats
The boys are comfortably arranged on the table by the window.

Later, I walk through the room and, as usual, Mimi is the only one awake, and Mewsette has spread herself over the top of the box. Such is a lazy Labor Day, though Mimi is ready to follow me upstairs, just for some one-on-one “adult” time together. Hope yours was a good one!

two black cats
Mimi, as usual, is the only one awake.

. . . . . . .

What other photos did I feature around this date?

Laboring At What We Love, 2013
five black cats sleeping in kitchen
Five happy cats sleeping all over the place.

Sweet dreams to The Five who are sleeping off the ceiling fan installation supervision from yesterday as they celebrate Labor Day and enjoy the fruits of their labors with the ceiling fans happily spinning. I did briefly press them into service earlier today as artist models, other than that, they are off the hook for work. Trust me that Emeraude is resting just as happily upstairs in the tub, her latest happy sleep spot.

On Labor Day I always feature in photos the ways my cats have inspired and assisted me in my work, which in turn celebrates them in their work. I always begin with the photo below, taken in June 2006 just before Lucy came to me, from left: Stanley, Sophie, Kelly, Namir, Cookie and Peaches. All the cats in the photo have now moved on to other endeavors, but I will never forget the love and support they gave me in the years they were with me. I often feature photos of the Five together in groups or all of them in my workspaces, studio, kitchen and desk, but truly my cats always gathered near me as I worked. In this case I managed to jump up and run to the landing to photograph without an of them following me!

 Desk with six cats, taken in 2006, but typical of my desk at any given time.
Desk with six cats, taken in 2006, but typical of my desk at any given time.

You hear about me and my work all the time, but I also try to give credit where credit is due—to my feline family, who through the years have always worked just as hard as me…in their own way. But as I constantly reiterate, they were my inspiration for art, and I might not be where I am today if not for them, showing and selling my art was the basis for my business plan for self-employment along with commercial art, and being able to be at home with them, especially as my first group grew older, was one of the decision points in actually deciding when to take the plunge.

And below, I’ve pasted a few posts of my cats at work with links to others.

. . . . . . .

Ready for Work

Tortie Girls reporting for work.
Tortie Girls reporting for work.

My studio supervisors arrive at work before me! I’m working on starting the day in my studio when my eyes are rested and I have daylight to work with instead of ending it there and working too late into the night.

My tortie girls agree! They’ve been staying up all night with me for more years than they want to remember—after all, they have to supervise me or how could I get any artwork done? The most important role they serve is sleeping on my lap or next to my feet so that I need to stay put and therefore get work done. One would never get up or move while a cat is sleeping.

The younger ones have something to learn from keeping me under control, perhaps someday one of them will show some potential.

Cookie has had a lifelong role in what I do, and this will clarify what she does: I Will Never Get to Retire.

. . . . . . .

And Then I Gave Up Work for the Day

four black cats on desk
Maybe she’ll notice us now.

Okay, okay, I admit I’ve been busy, but do you guys like to eat?! Then you’ll keep doing things like this as inspiration.

I also admit I posted this nearly two years ago, but it’s still appropriate today, as is the text below. The one thing I’d add is two torties on my lap, and Mimi on my keyboard shelf. I have been busy, and I’ve missed sharing a lot of photos.

For now, enjoy somewhat over 50 pounds of black cat on one desk.

They are always doing something unique, that whimsical quartet of siblings, but sometimes they have the right idea. I really was tired, my eyes were strained, I was losing focus at the end of a long day, and one by one the three boys piled up trying to get their point across (we need dinner, you need to stop working), hence the multiple nap. Then Mewsette, the big sister, piled on top of all of them and began bathing them all in turn, causing things to start falling off my desk. Still, I could pile papers on top of them and keep working. When the paws and tails expanded onto my keyboard, I decided to take their advice and quit working for the day.

. . . . . . .

Move Over Ikea Cats, Cookie’s Back in the Shop!

“I’m so pretty, I’ll bet all sorts of customers will come in today just to see me.”

While I had enjoyed Cookie’s company in my Portraits of Animals shop room at Carnegie Antiques through the spring, summer was hot and busy, and Peaches needed Cookie’s company too, so Cookie has had to stay home all these months. Yesterday, she gave me the look and I decided I’d love to have her company down there again.

It’s good to be back! I hated the ride in the pink thing and I really let my mom know about it, but once we got here I knew exactly where I was and I got right to work.

Who needs those fancy IKEA cats—I can run around and jump on things as well as any kitty, and I don’t have to share it with 99 others!

[Read all about Cookie’s adventures with links to other her trips to the shop.]

. . . . . . .

Peaches Has Her Interview

“Go do something else, I need your computer.”

Oh, my! I’ve been waiting ALL DAY for my mom to leave the computer. Eva posted a comment on my blog post last night, and I even sat on my mom in bed this morning trying to get-her-up!

We finally got to the computer and I heard her say, “It’s a good day to concentrate and get things done,” something to do with the weather which is out there and I don’t pay any attention to it, but she barely left her seat for long enough for me to grab a snack and get back before her.

Read more, including a link to Peaches’ decision to apply and her application! Peaches Applies for a Job

Happy Labor Day everyone! We are off to work!


Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

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Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


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© 2016 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

—

PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | GOOGLE+ | EMAIL

HOME


 

Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

2 thoughts on “Daily Photo: The Morning Array

  • guys…..we say high paws for chillaxin ina nice line like that….round heer… everee one wooda ben
    tryin ta squeez inta de same spot ☺☺☺♥♥♥ !!!

    Reply
    • They have style Tabbies! I never know what I’m going to get at my elbow.

      Reply

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