“Feather Bones (A Pegasus Variation) ” © Catherine Rutgers, June 2024
Welcome to CatRutgers4Art … star-flung dreams, tiny dancers, wide-open vistas, inner visions revealed. Writing on the inspiration, the media, whatever else springs to mind. This is an invitation to wander through my wonderland. With love, from Cat
Links @ziartcat • Vimeo
In the Surf, There’s a Party Over Here (Image 0563) & After the Waterfall (Dream Birds on Canvas) ~ 15-13 March 2024
Time doesn’t fly. It loops and leaps and spirals. Skips and strolls. Especially when you’re on a journey through social media terrain. On the 10th of July 2023, my @ziartcat project began with a commitment to publish one work of art, five days a week, for one year. It’s been a wild adventure.
Along the way I captured some flashbacks. The squares below hold nine days of images as they appeared onscreen, from the top-left corner to the lowest-right in reverse chronological order. Now, only three more days of posting and my promise will be achieved. Yes!!!
The Very First Nine for Ziartcat ~ From “Tweaked” Thursday, 20 July, to “Thought for Food” Monday, 10 July 2023
“My kitchen faces west, and the late-afternoon light is often spectacular, shining low from across the street and casting strange shadows or mysterious reflections. It was around this magical time that I decided Athena needed to be washed.”
We Are OK ~ From “Perfect Orange Ten” Monday, 25 September, to “Did You See the Full Moon” Tuesday, 12 September 2023
“A tasty treat of luminous abstraction for a slow sweet Monday. Let the stars streak and the bubbles fly.”
Words Text Love Magic ~ From “Helix Pink-Green” Tuesday, 24 October, to “O is for Open” Tuesday, 3 October 2023
“Spiral down to this in your sweet time … A cul-de-sac doesn’t mean there’s no exit. It all was illuminating and gives me precious experience to be used along the winding way of my perpetually evolving aspirations.”
All Together Now ~ From “So Below” Monday, 14 August, to “Containing Fire” Thursday, 3 August 2023
“This year let’s have courage strength hope music discipline faith vision magic fun connection love. We’re each a part of this even when we don’t know it.”
Fleeting Glimpse ~ From “The Oaks” Monday, 26 February, to “This Is What” Friday, 16 February 2024
“Minding the gap, though there are no closing doors. Today I feel expansive.”
Very Cherry ~ From “Iconic Observations” Wednesday, 27 March, to “In the Surf” Friday, 15 March 2024
“No, I’m not the goddess, just the flip side of Venus. I’m the dipsy doodle in your onion dip. I’m the one who had you howling at the sky when there was no moon.”
In Love with These Colors ~ From “Starry Night Under the Ocean” Thursday, 15 February, to “Personal Shades” Monday, 5 February 2024
“Oh, happy Vale of Right On Times!! Sing out!! Let there be music in the air.”
© Catherine Rutgers 2024 ~ I am an artist who digs in the dirt and watches the sky. In the studio, I translate my three-dimensional world to the one behind the glass, using a large-format graphic arts scanner, a simple digital camera, and the occasional screen grab when I want to capture pixel-level details. My art and texts are always generated by me, one at a time, taking my time, and changing over time. With love, from Cat
Lately, I’ve been working a lot in the material world, renovating my studio and happily lightening up: changing a magenta window frame to “limelight” green, or taking apart the big collage that wasn’t really successful, though preserved under heavy glass in an ornate vintage frame. Save the frame, stash the collage in the flat file, take a few quick photos to document the painted overlay, and the glass gets carried to the basement for recycling, while one of the photos gets transformed into an impromptu self-portrait.
The studio looks great. But I still haven’t sorted that last pile of things “temporarily” installed in the living room. Glorious snippets of spray paint on paper, Bill Ding and his magic clowns, intriguing print ads from decades ago. It’s a continuous battle to determine their value: aesthetic inspiration, personal treasure, raw material for the next art project? Or (toughest of all) toss?
Then I got extra-derailed on my way to an evening birthday celebration, walking down Church Avenue, past my mural in progress. Double-take. Double-take again. Oh, no. It’s clean outside, it’s bright inside, it’s a new business, a bakery, it’s chic, it’s busy … and the security gate is partway painted over [before I had the chance to finish it].
I messed up! I didn’t follow up after sending my proposal last summer for fixing the scraped-up top part, I didn’t find out what they were going to do with it, I didn’t say “be sure to let me know if it’s going to be painted over so I can take more photos before it disappears.” And now I’m like a ping-pong ball bouncing about in hyper-emotional sift-freak mode, teetering terribly close to the edge of despair!!!
Also, partly, I’m just tired of winter. I want to be out in the garden, handling green things. Or fooling around with the pix of those green things.
Or delving deep into a red, red rose. You know, typical substitute therapy. The screen, of course, is omni-seasonal. And even in the midst of winter—with an assist from the flower stand on Church Avenue, right across from the subway, for as long as I remember—I can find a rose.
Now maybe I can use the satisfaction of finishing this and get newly inspired to sift that pile o’ stuff. Or maybe not. Follow the bouncing ball!
01 The Very First Rose of Two Thousand Fourteen and Today, 02 Self-Portrait of Uncertain Dimensions (Image 3065), 03 Bill Ding and His Magic Clowns, 04 Mothers Worry (Bell Telephone in LIFE Magazine), 05 Concept (Add Silvery Leaves that Look Like Birds), 06 Cupid Reading (Image 2782), 07 Hold The Vine (Image 2042), 08 Never Look at a Rose the Same Way Again
“Ping Pong Mood” was originally published on January 31, 2014. The words remain the same, the images are reinvigorated. © Catherine Rutgers 2024
For The Dirge DēLIGHT’s EP release 3’s, Eddy Jo Martinez, guitarist extraordinaire, composed a trilogy – Lamentillennia, Down the Rabbit Hole (Overture of Threes) and Ascension – reflecting his vision of humanity’s struggle and evolution toward harmony.
He’s working with three different artists to make the relevant videos, including yours truly, who created the visuals for Ascension in collaboration with Tom Burnett, who set my artwork in motion. Now ready for its preview, here’s the link! https://vimeo.com/catherinerutgers/ascensionbythedirgedelight?share=copy
Ascension is an exhilarating, beautiful song (with seriously sweet guitar licks) that I simply love listening to over and over. For the video, I made one-hundred-and-forty-nine all-original images. Ten of them appear in this post. Music up!
01 Open Ascension, 02 Water Paper Five, 03 Looking Over, 04 Fallout Shelter, 05 Inner Vision, 06 Single Branch Motion, 07 Joy Light Two, 08 Increased Intensity (Ailanthus), 09 Violet Beyond, 10 The Climax Chord • Original art for original music. © Catherine Rutgers 2024
01 Bubbling Past (The Undergrowth Sprouts)
Toys from the 1930s, collage 2001, pine needles, a stereoscope circa 1899, a lobby built in 1937, seedpods and burnt-out CDs … outrageous things will happen to you. New art for prints!
02 The Ancient Multiplexity of Ruins
03 Hindsight Broadcast
04 Entropy and Ecstasy
05 Alive in the Physical World
06 Lovely As They Fade • All artwork and writing © Catherine Rutgers 2024
01 Who We Are
02 What We Say
03 What We See
04 Where We Are
05 Where We Go
06 When We Get There • Original art, made and published with love © Catherine Rutgers 2024
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