Cat and Sculpture

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Well, I am back, sort of. I trust you are enjoying the holiday months. I have been working almost non-stop for such a long time, but am happy to say that I am making progress. The book I am writing about my experiences street painting in Italy has now gone to the graphic designer to work her magic. What I have seen thus far looks really, really good and I cannot wait for the day that I can say that the book is READY!

When I returned to my studio after a couple of weeks away, I began again to carve the marble gymnast and discovered that I had a new companion of sorts. No doubt, I will lose a couple of friends with this admission, but I have never been much of a small cat person. Still, people who abandon cats are much lower on my list of favorite things. . Out where I live now, her presence is no accident.

Cat (think Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) is quite a young cat. She is sweet and has funny markings on her face, with a bushy tail more in line with a raccoon than a kitten her size. Her eyes are more orange than yellow. She has sharp little teeth surrounding that raspy tongue, but surprisingly, her little bites on my fingers and toes do not hurt as much as cat bites in my memory. Perhaps she is only being affectionate.

Cat craves attention, as any abandoned creature would. While I have been stopping my work at times to sit down and cuddle with her a bit, I do not have as much patience in the morning as I might otherwise have. Sadly, with about a month of daily temperatures easily over 100 degrees F., I am no longer working outside in the evenings. I find the air too heavy and my other work has more appeal. So the mornings are precious time and I am feeling quite protective of it, selfishly saving those hours for the marble sculpture.

In any event, progress continues regardless of delays and Cat now has food and water, and sometimes me.