Cats in Art: Louison and Raminou (Valadon)

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

This is part 4 of 7 of a multiweek study of the cat art of Suzanne Valadon. A French painter (1865-1838), she had quite the interesting life (summarized from Wikipedia):

Suzanne Valadon became a circus acrobat at the age of fifteen, but a year later, a fall from a trapeze ended that career. In Paris, she pursued her interest in art, first working as a model for artists, observing and learning their techniques, before becoming a noted painter herself. She modelled for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (who gave her painting lessons) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir....Valadon frequented the bars and taverns of Paris along with her fellow painters, and she was Toulouse-Lautrec's subject in his oil painting The Hangover....Valadon painted still lifes, portraits, flowers, and landscapes that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors. She was, however, best known for her candid female nudes. A perfectionist, she worked on some of her oil paintings for up to 13 years before showing them....A free spirit, she wore a corsage of carrots, kept a goat at her studio to "eat up her bad drawings", and fed caviar (rather than fish) to her "good Catholic" cats on Fridays....Both an asteroid (6937 Valadon) and a crater on Venus are named in her honor.

Image credit Wikipaintings, Louison and Raminou, 1920, Suzanne Valadon, oil on canvas, held in private collection.

 

As I promised last week, I proudly present to you all the cat called Raminou.  It is extremely rare for a painter to use a cat's name in the title of her work, so my hat is off to Suzanne Valadon.  Nearly a hundred years ago she broke the cat naming barrier in art (although I seem to recall another named cat, much earlier, but a short search of my archives turned up nothing...gotta dig deeper).

 

Raminou is one big cat, thoroughly covering Louison's lap above and looking like he is about to slide off.  Louison herself looks a bit askance at Raminou, like she is thinking "What's this cat doing on my lap?"  And Raminou looks a bit unsteady, as though he is pondering the age-old cat problem of stay or bolt.

 

I think the issue was decided in favor of "bolt" immediately after this modeling session.

 

 

De-Extinction: A Do Over?

[the dodo, image credit here]

I can't help but view this a good news.  Via thejournal:

Scientists want to bring 22 animals back from extinction

Last weeked at a TEDx conference in Washington DC sponsored by National Geographic, scientists met to discuss which animals should be brought back from extinction. They also discussed the how, why and ethics of doing so.

 

They called it ‘de-extinction‘.
 

A cover story for this month’s National Geographic explains how de-extinction rests on a relatively simple premise: it involves taking old DNA samples, reassembling them into a full genome which is then injected into embryonic cells which have had their own DNA taken out, and then finding a suitable living surrogate to give birth.

 

The Washington Post reports that ten years ago, a team of scientists from France and Spain almost brought back an extinct wild goat – but it only lived for 10 minutes. It raises a host of issues, including how scientists can get a good enough sample of DNA from the extinct animal – and whether or not they should. There are a few guidelines for which ancient species are considered, and sadly, dinosaurs are so long dead they aren’t in the picture. Their DNA has long ago degraded, so researchers are fairly sure that Jurassic Park will never happen.

I realize that many will probably disagree, but the chance to restore that which was lost through the actions and short-sightedness of humans is worthwhile.  As human population pressures increase, extinctions will inevitably rise, so this technique may well work hand-in-glove with other species survival strategies.

The list of 22 includes critters that appeal to me, particularly the dodo, passenger pigeon, and the ivory-billed woodpecker.

 

A Mean Little Run, Again

Yesterday I headed over to my Clay Hill 5 Miler, that I previously blogged about here.

It remains a Mean Little Run, for what I previously wrote was true again:

...you go up a lengthy hill, not high, but long and rolling, with a couple of false summits along the way. I know the route well, so am not faked out by the false summits, it’s just that the hill seemingly rolls on and on and on. Then the road heads into the woods—what my kids call a “slinky road,” completely shaded, with the trees almost touching overhead. That part is pleasant…until another long uphill, again with a couple false summits to demoralize you.

The actual length of these 2 hills, and their height, are not really very significant, but just seem to be.
 

For whatever reason, this run has it in for me.  So that's why I keep going back.  I'm a bit stubborn about stuff like that.

 

A Slight Problem for Easter...and Ultrarunning

 

[image credit here]

 

Uh-oh. 

 

With a small horde of small relatives descending upon the bride and me on Saturday for our extended family Easter celebration, I hope that the powers that be can provide a suitable substitute in time.

 

As for Ultrarunning, rabbits and squirrels are the most common roadkills I see in my local road runs.  Possums are probably a close third.

 

The most interesting roadkill I ever saw was in Texas.  While on a business trip I made an unfortunate choice of routes to get from Texarkana to see the Red River.  I was running along a 4-lane highway that had an adequate but not very generous shoulder, and the incessant lumber trucks were making me crazy.

 

So I opted to run along the adjacent railroad tracks.  There between the tracks I saw a roadkilled armadillo--the first armadillo I had ever seen, dead or alive, outside a zoo.  I figured that this must have been one dumb critter and one dumb species to have been killed by a train.

 

 

For You Night Runners

Nope, not a how-to on headlamps or flashlights or route-finding.

What that leaves, of course, is astronomy (one of my favs).  From where else but Bad Astronomy, we learn more about the constellation Orion.  First a macro view of the familiar constellation (in this view, turned on its side):

 

 

 Then a close up of the middle star of his dagger (the smaller 3-star-row pointing down to the right in image above:

 

The Orion Nebula (also called M42) is one of the most recognizable objects in the entire sky. The middle “star” in Orion’s dagger hanging below his belt, this cloud of gas and dust is so bright that even from more than 13 quadrillion kilometers (8 thousand trillion miles) away it’s easily visible to the naked eye.

It’s a vast sprawling complex of interstellar material, lit by the fierce energy of stars born within. It’s amazing through a small telescope, stunning through a big one, and gorgeous in pictures…but then adjectives seem a little dingy and small when trying to describe the view in the infrared....Jaw-dropping? Mind-blowing? I can’t come up with a hyphen-dashing word appropriate for this. It’s chillingly beautiful.

I've previously blogged about Orion here, and the fascination I have with the star Sirius.  Now I gotta check out the middle star of Orion's dagger.

So many things to check out and learn about, and so little time.

 

 

 

NASCAR--Not a Sport--But a Good Model...and Ultrarunning

Saw this at Boing Boing, and it seems like a good idea.

I've never quite understood how giving cash to a candidate or to a political office holder is not bribery...or how the recipient is not subtly or overtly swayed to then vote for the donor's interests rather than the constituent.

So I grudgingly give credit to the NASCAR model (even though it, along with golf, are not real sports).  Boing Boing requests readers sign a White House petition to require Congress to wear outfits with their "sponsors" logos displayed in patch form, in a size commensurate with the amount of donations:

The idea of forcing Congresscritters to wear NASCAR-style coveralls with the logos of their financial backers has been bandied about before, but here it is in official White House petition form.

Since most politicians' campaigns are largely funded by wealthy companies and individuals, it would give voters a better sense of who the candidate they are voting for is actually representing if the company's logo, or individual's name, was prominently displayed upon the candidate's clothing at all public appearances and campaign events. Once elected, the candidate would be required to continue to wear those "sponsor's" names during all official duties and visits to constituents. The size of a logo or name would vary with the size of a donation. For example, a $1 million dollar contribution would warrant a patch of about 4" by 8" on the chest, while a free meal from a lobbyist would be represented by a quarter-sized button. Individual donations under $1000 are exempt.
 

So...click over to Boing Boing for a link to the White House petition.  If they 100,000 signatures the White House must formally address the issue.  They'll reject the idea, of course, but at least a point will have been made.  And who knows, maybe the idea will take off and gain some true national traction?

Oh, and Ultrarunning?  It's tough to make a connection, but Nature of course comes to mind in the guise of, say, fracking or gutting of National Parks budgets.  We may well need the White House petition venue to address some pressing environmental issue that will affect us.

 

"Wars are Bad"

A succinct post from Duncan Black, reproduced here in its short and sweet entirety.  Because I can't improve upon a single word.

Wars Are Bad

And if for some reason the people who run the United States feel the need to start one, it means they've failed. It means they should all resign in shame and let someone else clean up their mess. This country has immense power - military, economic, political - and if you can't use the latter two, along with the implicit threat of the first one, to make war unnecessary then you've fucked up and it's time to go home.
 

Cats in Art: Cat Lying in Front of a Bouquet of Flowers (Valadon)

Oops--this post went out unfinished.  Here's the rest of the post....

++++++++++++++++

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

This is part 3 of 7 of a multiweek study of the cat art of Suzanne Valadon. A French painter (1865-1838), she had quite the interesting life (summarized from Wikipedia):

Suzanne Valadon became a circus acrobat at the age of fifteen, but a year later, a fall from a trapeze ended that career. In Paris, she pursued her interest in art, first working as a model for artists, observing and learning their techniques, before becoming a noted painter herself. She modelled for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (who gave her painting lessons) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir....Valadon frequented the bars and taverns of Paris along with her fellow painters, and she was Toulouse-Lautrec's subject in his oil painting The Hangover....Valadon painted still lifes, portraits, flowers, and landscapes that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors. She was, however, best known for her candid female nudes. A perfectionist, she worked on some of her oil paintings for up to 13 years before showing them....A free spirit, she wore a corsage of carrots, kept a goat at her studio to "eat up her bad drawings", and fed caviar (rather than fish) to her "good Catholic" cats on Fridays....Both an asteroid (6937 Valadon) and a crater on Venus are named in her honor.

 

Image credit The Atheneum, Cat Lying in Front of a Bouquet of Flowers, 26" x 14", Suzanne Valadon, 1919, held in private collection.

 

 

I just love the earnest, engaged expression on the cat's face.  And as we will see next week, I strongly suspect that this subject is none other than Raminou.  Raminou isn't identified by name in the title of this painting, but he is named in the titles of a couple others of Valadon's later works.

 

Regardless, a timeless image that really captures the essence of the personality of the cat.