What the Art Teacher Wore #59

Feelin' Catty Monday: Aw, what am I talkin' about, I'm catty everyday! For the first time in my small-chested life, I actually got to use the phrase, "My eyes are up here," when I caught folks staring at my Nerdy Cat Sweater. It's the little things in life that give me joy. sweater: made by me, DIY here; dress: vintage, Four Sessions Vintage; tights: Target; shoes: Fluevog

You gotta be kitten me! You cat be serious. Have you seen these images of cats vastly improving masterpieces by your fave artists? If not, I'm feline like you go and check 'em out right here, right meow. 

 Hey, hep cats. I come to you with clay under my fingernails and visions of some of the cutest clay critters ever created by kids dancing in my head. Which is givin' me a migraine. But it's all worth it. After two weeks of hard work, my kindergarten through fourth grade students have each created an animal sculpture worthy of howls, meows and woofs. I'm so thankful for the many parents that volunteered in the art room to help make this project possible and to keep me sane. It takes a village. Well, to keep me sane, it takes a village, meds and adult bevvies. But I digress.

Since this was our last week to craft our animal sculptures, I decided to continue my all-animals dress code from last week. And since I outed myself as a crazy cat lady earlier this week, I thought I'd share with you some of my fave feline masterpieces. I do hope you enjoy and have a purrrrrr-fect week!

Tame Cat’s Optical Illusion, Tokuhiro Kawai, 2006, Oil on Canvas Kawai is a Tokyo-born surrealist artist who's painted several paintings of this Scottish Fold house cat. I am completely toying with the idea of creating a few paintings like these of dear ol' Asha. You can see more feline masterpieces by Kawai here.

Feline Footsie Tuesday: And on this day, I had the pleasure of hanging out with some of the adult artists in our school as they created their own gnome homes. I figured that while we had the clay out, why not allow everyone to join in on the fun? sweater: Old Navy, thrifted; dress and belt: Anthropologie; tights and necklace: Target: cat shoes: Modcloth

Okay, I do believe I could have totally created my own version of these kitten heels but I decided to birthday splurge on these instead. Seeing as how I saved a whopping $99.99 by creating this Modcloth sweater, I had a little money to burn.

Woman and siamese cat, Eileen Mayo, 1952 Aw, so sweet. When I try to do this with my cat, she will usually smack me with her tail a good couple of times before getting up and sitting on my hubs lap. This is then followed by her "um, we'd like some privacy, please" stare.

Birds of a Feather Wednesday: I actually wore one of my own belts created belts on this day. I don't know why I've stopped wearing them. But the bird seemed to work with the bird feathers in the pattern of this dress. sweater and necklace: vintage, thrifted; dress, tights, shoes: Anthropologie; belt: made by me

 Julie Manet With Cat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1867, oil painting Not until I did some googling did I discover that Renoir has featured cats in many of his paintings. I've never been a huge fan of Renoir's work (his brush strokes are just too fuzzy and fluffy for me) but one look at that kitten's face and I might become a convert.

News Cat-astrouphe: What you are looking at is a DIY sneak-peak. No, I didn't make this dress (although I did later discover the fabric here and was bummed that I hadn't made the dress myself) but I did embellish it quite a bit. But you'll have to wait to hear about that. On this evening, a buddy and I attended an invite-only event at Anthropologie. There was music, drinks, snacks and plenty of good company. Ask your local Anthro to put you on their emailing list about special promotions. You'll love it. black top, necklace: Target; dress: originally Modcloth, DIY by me; sparkly fishnets: TJMaxx; shoes: Dolls by Nina

The kids were very intrigued by the print of this dress and loved seeing the images of the cats. However, my kindergarten students were completely confused. They thought I was actually wearing a dress made out of newspaper and several had to have a touchy-feely moment with the fabric (after a couple of "bad touches", ahem, I limited them to the fabric near the hem). There's also a dog version of this fabric found here.

I had a copy of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories growing up and I loved them. This illustration from The Cat that Walked by Himself was always one of my favorites. I'd love to have this print in my house.

Oh, hello, neighbor: Pretty sure the neighbors think I'm a freak show what with my tripod and goofball poses. sweater: from the Anthro shindig. Got it on super-duper sale and was able to use my birthday discount. If you're not familiar, if you sign up for an "anthro card" (not a credit card, just something they scan at each purchase so they can see just how completely addicted to their store you are), they'll send you a 15% off your total purchase card in the mail to be used during your birthday month. skirt: vintage, thrifted; fishnets: Marshalls; shoes: Dolls by Nina

Girl in a Field, Tsuguharu Foujita I discovered this artist in college and had several of his prints in my dorm room. I love his strange style of paintings that almost look like drawings; the similar doll-like features of the women in his paintings and, of course, the cats! His funny faced felines are featured in many of his paintings.

The artist himself sounds like fashionable funky dude. I read this about him: His hair was cut in the style of an Egyptian statue; he wore earrings, dressed in tunics and had a tattoo around his wrist. He even wore a lampshade sometimes rather than a hat! You can read more about Foujita and see more of his work here.