Banksy isn’t the only one giving cats a brush with fame.
The elusive artist plastered a leopard outside Yankee Stadium Wednesday — and 20 more feline fanatics will follow in his footsteps later this month for the first ever Brooklyn Cat Painting Takedown.
The artists have two hours to craft the purrfect work of art at Bushwick’s Active Space Gallery. That’s not a lot of time to scratch out a masterpiece, so the contestants are already sketching their game plans for the Nov. 24 battle.
“I definitely want to defend my title,” says Susanne Lamb, 25, who took first place in a related Black Velvet Painting Takedown in August, where she brushed a guinea pig wearing a crown.
Event organizer Matt Timms says she’s the one to beat. He even tapped her to design the whimsical contest poster — although she’s taking a more natural approach for the main event.
PHOTOS: A LOOK BACK AT BANKSY'S TIME IN NEW YORK
“I’m steering clear of the celebrity cat groove,” she says. “I’m terrified there could be a dozen Grumpy Cats and Lil Bubs.”
She’s using her tortoiseshell cat, Olive, as her muse instead.
“I am sketching Olive a lot,” admits Lamb. “The level of obsession with her is rising. It’s really hard to limit yourself when your cat is so cute.”
Timms is banking on Brooklynites to share Lamb’s feline obsession. “I’m riding the wave of this cat moment,” he says. “We saw the Brooklyn Cat Video Festival just last weekend. Cats are really popular right now.”
Timms has been throwing culinary takedowns, from bacon to chili cookoffs, for the past decade. He began dabbling in art this year.
RELATED: UBER APP DELIVERS ON-DEMAND KITTENS
“The whole premise is to let them paint something silly,” he says. The art will be put up for auction at the end to benefit the local Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition animal shelter. Guests can watch the artists work while savoring Sixpoint beer and vegan chili, and kitten videos will be projected on the walls. The painters will compete for gift certificates to local art supply shops.
The fur is already flying between kitty-sketchers clawing for a win. “I’m bringing my A game,” says Ricardo Roques, 30, who’s won art battles at Silkys, the screen-printing shop where he works. “I’m looking at a lot of cat pictures, looking at their faces, seeing which is the right cat with the right expression, the right fur and the right color.”
After scouring Google images, books and magazines for the perfect puss, he plans to sketch rough drafts of his chosen cat in classical poses set in silly situations — like a painting he saw of a presidential kitty in the Oval Office.
“I’m trying to think of something humorous,” he says. “It’s always better to laugh and enjoy something than to feel sad or too thoughtful.”
Adrian Yablin, 23, was the first person to sign up for the feline face-off. “People find cats enigmatic because you never really know what they’re thinking — not like dogs, who are like, I just met you and I love you,” she says.
RELATED: IT'S MEOW OR NEVER FOR STARS AT CAT VIDEO FESTIVAL
Yablin is on to something — master painters have included cats in their finest works for centuries, from Henri Matisse’s 1910 “Marguerite with a Black Cat” depicting his daughter with a cat in her lap, to Pablo Picasso’s surrealist 1939 “Cat Catching a Bird,” featuring an abstract feline with a bird in its mouth.
Yablin has dabbled in tabbies, portraying a fluffy gray feline dressed in a button-down shirt and tie surrounded by “Office Space” quotes for a Westchester exhibit last year.
This time she’s drawing inspiration from her new black and white tuxedo cat, Watson.
“I’m thinking maybe a Victorian-style portrait of a cat with an ornate frame,” she muses. “They have very human characteristics, and if you exaggerate that a little bit, it can be very interesting subject matter.
“And it gives me an excuse to make him wear a top hat.”
npesce@nydailynews.com
YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Brooklyn Cat Painting Takedown happens Nov. 24 at 6 p.m. at The Active Space, 566 Johnson Ave., Bushwick. See thetakedowns.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment