The Nightmare Print

When I lie down on the couch for a nap, I inevitably awaken to find two or three cats sleeping on top of me. It occurs to me that the little guys think I’m a piece of furniture. They see no problem walking across me to get where they are going although I am fairly certain they would object to me doing the same to them. I imagine that, when typical cat owner goes to bed at night, he lets his cats wander all over the place, doing whatever they please. They might sniff him, vomit into his shoe, or even bite his toe. From there, it is only a short step to that cat killing at eating that unaware human. That is what comes to mind when I look at this picture. The original idea was simply to execute a black painting with black cats so that only their eyes shone through the darkness. I added the bronze Art Nouveau busts and the rubber trees because an all-black painting seemed too flat and lifeless. The title was derived from Henry Fuseli’s masterpiece The Nightmare. The subject matter is very similar to that in my picture, but Fuseli’s painting does not have nearly enough cats. My painting remedies that situation.