Cat Woman Wednesday: The Artist

Today I’m proud to introduce you to cat woman Heidi Marie who hails from Scranton, PA. Heidi is both a cat lover and a talented artist who received her MFA in Painting. I’m guessing she’s a wine lover too given her “cat wine bottle” painting below is the piece that first caught my attention (no surprise there given I believe felines and wine go hand-in-hand!).

Heidi often bottle feeds foster babies (squee!) and is working towards her goal of opening a cat sanctuary in the next 5-10 years. So without further ado, here’s Heidi!

I have always been an animal – and non-venomous insect – lover, and cats have always been a big part of my life. We got our first kitten when I was ten years old but sadly (and unbeknownst to us when we got her), she was very sick and only lived about a week.

After mourning the loss of Fluff, we adopted Snowball Joe and he was king of the household for 18 years. During his tenure, he had friends like Marvin the cat who was rescued from a mailbox as a tiny kitten, and Maxwell who was a runt that a pet shop had given up on. (My sister went looking for a bird cage and came out with a tiny Maxwell instead. He lived on to be 7.)

As an introverted and often bullied child, these cats were a huge comfort to me. It also happened to be way more fun to draw cats in the margins of my elementary school notebooks than it was to pay attention to the teacher.

What started out as doodles turned into a cartoon strip about a cat who wears a scuba suit and joins an octopus in an undersea bowling league (I think its time I revived that) evolved into a sort of continuous stream of cat-related art throughout my life. In fact, a few years ago I completed my Master of Fine Arts Degree so I guess all the doodling was worth it!

These days I have three furry friends in my life (all rescues). Ten-year-old Eddie made it into the head-butting world championship finals this year, and also boxes nightly during medicine time. He is very shy and skittish, except when he smells something cooking. Then he has the loudest, deepest meow that I’ve ever heard.

Eddie after a long day at the office

I took in Miss Woot seven years ago when a friend could no longer keep her. She has the most cattitude and by far the loudest purr even though she is very petite. Her favorite hobby besides snuggly naps on laps is knocking things off of tables and shelves.

Woot’s serious cattitude face

Lastly (but not least!) is my youngest who I took in at two weeks old, Mr. Skutchie Sku. He needed to be bottle fed and potty-trained and I thought for sure he’d end up being small since he didn’t have his mother’s milk for his entire babyhood.

Baby Skutchie the art critic

WRONG! He weighs close to 20lbs. His favorite thing on the planet is WATER! Watching an entire pot of coffee drip, staring at a running sink, interrupting showers, playing in the tub – that’s his full-time job and he takes it quite seriously.

Skutchie yawning (or laughing, it’s hard to tell!)

I can’t describe how happy I am to have these fur children and give them a good life.
I’m still constantly inspired to make cat art because they are great subjects, being both graceful and quirky in varying intervals. Their personalities, expressions, and form are beautiful to me on a visual and emotional level.

Heidi and Woot (the only one who would cooperate for the photo shoot!)

Cats inspire some of my artwork but they’ve also influenced my life goal: to open a no-kill sanctuary in the next 5-10 years. Did you know that cats and kittens are the #1 most euthanized animal in the country?

About a year and a half ago, I opened a small art and antiques business that I hope will eventually make this sanctuary possible and help some felines to become someone’s best friends rather than statistics. My Etsy shop can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/OldfangledStudio (you can purchase a print of the cat wine bottle here as well!).

I’ve always enjoyed being the person my friends brought their found kittens to for bottle feeding and fostering, and to be able to do that at a larger scale would be a dream come true. I will certainly continue working on making this a reality with no lack of inspiration in sight!