Cats in Art: Morning (Tuxford)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I am using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.  

I have a loved one who lives in Eureka, CA, and works at the Humboldt Arts Council in the Morris Graves Museum of Art.  So...I perused the on-line images held by the Morris Graves Museum of Art and came up with 3 works containing cats (this is post 3 of 3).


Here's what the museum website says about their mission:

Museum art collections represent the nation’s patrimony and heritage, and the Humboldt Arts Council is conscious that we are entrusted with a resource that essentially belongs to the whole community— it’s yours to enjoy! Collecting works of art is one of the most basic undertakings of an art museum. Moreover, what the museum collects strongly determines its overall character and influence in the art community at large. As a consequence, the Humboldt Arts Council in the Morris Graves Museum of Art is founded upon the principles of ethical art collecting and stewardship. The Museum recognizes that it holds for posterity a significant portion of our cultural wealth.  The Morris Graves Museum of Art is dedicated to the arts and artists of the Pacific Northwest with the highest priority given to the works of our patron artist, Morris Graves. Emphasis is placed on collecting art which builds on the evolving strengths of the collection and which also have a significant potential for long-term usefulness.

With that intro, here's a very intriguing image:

Image credit Humboldt Arts Council in the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Brenda Tuxford, Morning, etching, 1995, size unspecified

I used the word "intriguing" because the cat does not appear on the table, yet its shadow does on the wall.  Maybe you could argue that the cat is really just out of the picture on the left, but why?  Seems to me that the whole intent is to draw the viewer in with this optical anomaly.

The kitty is relaxed and evidently pausing in the act of washing, as evidenced by the back feet in the air and the sense that the cat is looking at something.

In this one small etching of a silhouetted cat, Ms. Tuxford manages to capture so well the essence of catness.