The cats know...
First things first, my sincerest thanks to everyone who has subscribed and followed since last August. I appreciate that you’ve signed on to keep up with my sometimes verbose, sometimes boring and sometimes unclear thoughts about my studio practice and life. I started this blog back around 2004 on Blogger, kept it going for a good number of years and eventually left it to dry after social media took hold.
Eventually, I found myself returning to sharing my thoughts in a long format once again and found Substack last year, where I now publish both this blog and my monthly studio newsletter. It’s been great being able to reach new readers and find community. I appreciate your time and hope that I can make it. worth your while. Thanks for allowing me into your space. I hope I can make it worth your while.
Studio cat crew
For five years, from 2017-2022, my studio was in a two bedroom apartment in South Philly. During that time, I had five studio assistants: Banjo, Cooper, Sydney, Parsley and Sage. I know what you’re thinking; 5 cats in a two bedroom apartment. Yes, it worked. Yes, everyone got along. It was pretty amazing.
A little backstory: I was married once and lived there with my former wife. We started out with three rescues (Banjo, Cooper and Sydney). A few years after that, she rescued two orphaned kittens from the backyard of our apartment building (Parsley and Sage). They were small enough that they had to be fed by hand every three-four hours by us for a while before they were able to eat on their own. That was in 2013.
Fast forward to 2017. I’d gotten divorced, stayed in the apartment and kept the cats because my ex-wife wasn’t able to take any of them back with her to her home country. I also stayed because I didn’t have money to move and finding a place where I could keep the cats together was going to be too much of a painful issue. At the same time, I also had to leave the outside studio I had and moved all of my supplies and paintings into the apartment, turning the whole space into my next studio.
Anyone with cats knows that a closed door policy is next to impossible. I tried keeping them out of the main room I used to make work in, which lasted all of a day, at most. At least when I was there. I had a day-job at the time and kept the main studio door closed when I wasn’t at home. Whenever I was home, the cats all wanted to be where I was, so closing the door was a fruitless endeavor. From then on until I moved again, the cats became my furry studio crew. Every time I posted a photo to my IG with one or more of them in it, that photo would get a ton of hits. None of them went viral, but the cats were way more popular than my art or any shots with me in them.
You’re going to find this unbelievable, but amazingly, there were hardly any instances of paint or other materials getting onto their fur. Maybe two that I can think of.
They became an integral part of my working and living environment in the apartment. Even as I spent half of my time shooing one or more of them away from my immediate work area, I was also happy that we had this existence together. On top of that, they gave me plenty of opportunities for photos.
By the beginning of 2022, despite my best efforts at trying to continue maintain working in the apartment, I was being hampered with having too little space. Some days, in order to do one thing, I had to move ten items out of my way. As flexible as I can be, my work was beginning to suffer for lack of space. On top of that, in February of that year, I lost Parsley to an unknown cause. Soon after, I had to let Sydney go because of feline hyperthyroidism, a common ailment in older cats. It was a rough month, to say the least.
With the space issue and the last couple of misfortunes, it was time for a major change. By this time, I was living with my now-girlfriend, Julia, which meant I needed to find another work space. There was absolutely no space in her house, so I started looking, got on a couple of wait-lists and crossed my fingers. The market for artist spaces had been shrinking for some time, but there wasn’t much of a choice, I really needed a dedicated work space. Thankfully, something opened up and I was able to get my present space at Crane Arts.
In the meantime, I moved the last of my belongings into Julia’s house, including my three remaining cats: Banjo, Cooper and Sage. The new studio space is great. One exception being that I can’t have pets there. I ran a few scenarios around in my head of how I could have the cats in the studio, at least to bring one or two to hang out during the day when I’m there. Unfortunately, all of that was going to be more trouble than it would be worth.
Not having the cats around in the studio took a lot of getting used to. It took a while to get over the separation and I was really used to having them around me as I worked. I kept expecting them to be on the other side of the door every day I went to the new studio for a while. Again, I had to remind myself that the three were at home and that was ok. On the other hand, I was kind of happy about not having to look out for any of them getting into or onto something I wouldn’t want them to.
Nowadays, I don’t think about it, but the studio experience is a little different.
One more thing: My cats are also the only witnesses to what really happened behind the scenes for those years. They definitely would have had to sign NDAs if they could talk.
One of those rare moments when the whole crew was resting in the same place.
I’ve been a cat dad since day one.
More uncharted territory
It’s summer and life slows down a bit, but not to a halt. Since my show ended, I’ve turned my attention to making work for a solo exhibition this fall at Mercer County Community College in North Jersey. I’m jumping into some new territory again and feeling a lot of potential with what’s happening. There’s a lot of overlapping creative interests coming about. Mostly, I’m thinking about connections between drawing, painting and even sculpture that have become somewhat intertwined in my work lately.
The unstretched canvas paintings are giving me a lot to think about right now. I’m looking at how things might be when I let go of the conventional frame of a traditional rectangular surface. There’s a freedom coming from these new forms that I haven’t tapped into before. Taking the work out of that traditional framing is expanding my view of what’s possible.
Recent miscellany…
Presumed Innocent (Apple +) is so good in so many ways! I highly recommend getting into this series. Three episodes in and the writing, acting, cinematography and more continues to be top notch. A lot of the story is told in flashback and those are doled out to the audience in a great way, adding to the questioning about innocence and guilt.
I enjoy listening to podcasts about shows I’m watching and so far, have found two that I like about Presumed Innocent: The Prestige TV Podcast Presumed Innocent premier and Above The Garage TV Podcast-Presumed Innocent
Godzilla: Minus One - Yes, watch it if you haven’t already. The focus on the human characters really drives this film. It does so in ways that are both dark, but also heartfelt and not in a sugary way. The monster looks great and wreaks havoc on an already war-torn and weary Japan left to fend for itself.
I started listening to the Art Sense podcast and liked these recent interviews with painters Stanley Whitney and Pam Glick
To see more of my work, visit TimMcFarlane.com
For artwork inquiries and purchases, contact the Bridgette Mayer Gallery
Curators, collectors, and others who are in the Philadelphia area this summer and would like schedule a studio visit, get in touch: tim@timmcfarlane.com.
I love this so much, as you know, being a cat owner as well. But I only have one. When we adopted him, the rescue said that he was a strictly one cat household cat. I wonder about that now because they got a few other things wrong about his personality. I like the idea of studio cats, like Bodega cats, and these photos of them in your studio are incredible. Thanks for sharing them.
Thanks for sharing your history with cats and life. I can see that your love of cats is a big part of you, but cats have a way of making you their own. I also really enjoyed seeing your new works. I experimented with unstretched canvas for a while myself but the curling edges bothered me. I hope you are successful with them!