pranks on cats

You may be familiar with the videos making the rounds of SNS, that show a cat getting scared out of its wits when it becomes aware of a cucumber deliberately placed in its blind spot by some prankster.  I laughed the first time I saw one of these videos, but not after the second or the third or the twentieth. It's really been bothering me.

more word play

Click here to find out who won the drawing for the Goldfish Words greeting card ("everyone has something to say"). 

the power of books

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. Books can satisfy your curiosity. Great books can give you a new life.

etegami cat calendar

I haven't had a pet cat since I was a child, but the local cats love the wild and untended back yard of our crumbling, old house. It is a walled sanctuary, green and quiet, in an urban area filled with tall buildings and concrete. I've seen several generations of cats and kittens hang out in our yard. Watching them nap in the pools of sunlight, or the shade of a wall, is one of my favorite entertainments and has inspired many an etegami.

The Etegami Cats desk calendar is for sale on my Etsy shop. The calendar starts from April 2013 and goes till March 2014. If you're a cat person, please take a look!

Oops. All sold out. Sorry.

ouch

I am constantly burning my mouth and getting mouth blisters from hot food. Don't tell me it's a matter of training my mouth, because I won't believe you. And if you tell me it's an issue of improving my character (i.e. that I need to think before I bite), I will believe you, but it won't make any difference, because I've tried to change, and I know by now that I never will.  The writing on this etegami says "Neko-jita" (cat's tongue). It's a phrase used when describing a person who is extremely sensitive to hot liquids or foods. I guess I'm just a cat person.

the blue period

Fog Cat

 I can't remember when blue wasn't my absolutely favorite color. And blue goes so well with poetry, don't you think?

The first two etegami posted here were experiments with watercolor inks and watercolor paper--materials I am not at all familiar with, as strange as that may sound to you. They are rare examples of the image coming to me before the words do. But as soon as I finished painting the cat, I just knew that it was the Fog Cat from the Carl Sandburg poem Fog.

Blue Pigeon

The words quoted on the blue pigeon etegami are from the poem Japanese Lullaby by Eugene Field.

Santoka's Owl

The barred owl was done in the traditional etegami manner, with my trusty and true sumi ink, gansai paints, and washi paper, as suits the classic Taneda Santoka haiku. All the originals are for sale on my Etsy shop.