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| "Luv Kats," acrylic and chalk paint on canvas, 2024 Otto Von Miller. |
As everybody knows, Thee Optimist is into giving people joy.
Recently, he has been sharing that joy by painting and drawing, in the guise of the artist Otto Von Miller.
At times, he draws and paints cats. Cats give people joy just by being cats. Lazy, ever-murderous, clever, and with lightning reflexes, cats are cool.
Cats have been known to burst into flames.
The above painting is a rip on a pre-owned cat poster Otto saw at a thrift store. He has no idea if it's a well-known image or not, or if the original artist was famous.
Perhaps you know.
Why does he do this? Why does he copy stuff?
Well, it's one way to learn, especially when untutored.
Also, a previous incarnation of himself once broke into a difficult line of work by writing novels that could be considered homages to the great crime writer Elmore Leonard.
Later, he wrote many books in different styles, including ones that could be considered his very own style.
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| "Basqui-Cat Lite," pencil on paper, 2024 Otto Von Miller. |
The Basqui-Cat
The Neo-expressionist American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is best known for his political paintings, often depictions of racism and systems of power and disenfranchisement.
Also, he sometimes painted cats. And dogs.
The above is a pencil drawing ripping Basquiat's style a little bit. I call it "Basqui-Cat Lite," because Basquiat's artwork was generally much darker, both in theme and color.
After I did that drawing, it occurred to me to do a painting using basically the same cat, in a different way.
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| "Earless Joe Jackson," acrylic paint on canvas, 2024 Otto Von Miller. |
This is indeed the same cat as above. Only now he is dressed in the baseball uniform of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, nine of whom became infamous for taking payments from gambling interests to deliberately lose the World Series that year.
He has also morphed into an "earless" cat, reminiscent of a Scottish Fold (which has very small, hard-to-see ears). This is a play on "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, accused of (though never proven to be) one of the ill-fated nine.
Basqui-Cat Goes For a Ride
Earlier, I made a blog post about how a subway train sketch I made morphed into a painting for my mother, Thee OptiMom.
I won't assume you remember that. So here's the sketch again:
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| "Number 4," pencil on paper, 2024 Otto Von Miller. |
This was originally meant as a sketch of myself, riding the subway through the Bronx, on my way to high school.
For fun, I used the character from the famous 1893 painting, "The Scream," by Edvard Munch, to represent me.
For even more fun, I did another drawing.
I had the Scream character, representing me, go for a ride in a car based on an old Volkswagen Beetle sedan, with the Basqui-Cat behind the wheel.
The Beetle is famous for being the most popular car in history, and for being partially invented (or at least commissioned) by Adolf Hitler.
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| "I Should Probably Drive," pencil on paper, 2024 Otto Von Miller. |
In the picture, the Basqui-Cat appears to be on some sort of mind-altering substance while driving.
The Scream person is suitably concerned.
Words of Wisdom
"A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution."
- Hazel Nicholson
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