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Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics

Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics

List Price: $16.95
Your Price: $11.53
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: THE CAT'S SOUL
Review: It's definitely as intellectual and informative of the cat's inner emotions and soul as you're going to get from a cat book. Countless books about cat behavior and cat care abound, but this type of book focuses on the innter being of the cat. After all, almost every cat-owned human wonders what can their cat(s) possibly be thinking!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book is HILARIOUS!
Review: Its a really well-done joke, making fun of long-winded discriptions of modern art. This is a great book for people in the art world who have a well-developed sense of humor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Meaux-net ! C'est Extraordinare!
Review: Know a devotee of felinicity?

This book is infallible selection for the feline lovers in your circle and a sheer pleasure to own. "Why Cat's Paint," along with the companion title, "Why Paint Cats," is a lightner of sorrows, joy to the eye and a tickler of all residual good humors. The authors of this book are connoisseurs of the loftiest sensibility.

Be prepared to take the voluminous tongue-in-cheek analysis of various feline "schools" of artistic contretemps with a grain of salt. The book is wonderful send-up of the art world, of ourselves and our laughable tendency to anthropomorphize those inscrutable companions, our cats.

Alors! If you have a sense for the lightness of kitty paws, an asthete's instinct for the possible and the absurd (a fine line, that), if you sojourn in light, color and compositional kitty paws, this book will send you and your sympathetiques straight into the ether.

The photographs and text are full of wonderful nuggets of art-inspiring felines, a thing the book proposes as not at all impossible, but rather sublime, much like the enigmatic faces of our cat expressing: Art! Joie! Expression!

Merveilleux!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If you love art and have a sense of humor
Review: My undergraduate work was in Fine Arts and Art History so I found this book hysterical. The writing style mimics most art criticism and art history pieces, so if you're familiar with that genre, you'll appreciate the genius of this book. It pokes fun at art critism while playing on most people's bafflement as to what constitutes art. This book is a joke, although it's so flawlessly constructed you can't be sure at first. The cat metaphor makes a great commentary on the ridiculousness of much art writing. Even if you've never been forced to read ridiculous art criticism, you'll appreciate this book if you love cats. This review is in memory of "Teenie" (1992-2000), my little calico girl.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Entertaining and fascinating
Review: Never really read art criticisms before, but I love cats and this was an entertaining book. Some of the explanations are very funny and some of the reasoning/theories are fascinating, but too far-fetched. Definitely worth the Amazon price.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved it!
Review: Seems there are a lot of non-believers out there... that's too bad. I first found out my cat liked to paint when he would dab his paw in the wet paint of a painting I was working on. He has done this on several occasions! I thought it was just my cat, but thanks to this book I see that it is "natural." Now that I've read the book I intend to give my cat paints and let him go at it. This book is a great conversation piece, I took it to work and it was a hit. It also made me feel good inside.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A really nice book...
Review: So... I really like the idea of my cat making me thousands of dollars by expressing herself on a canvas... but I don't know if that will ever happen... so the closest I can come to that is to read about other cats making thousands of dollars for their ecentric owners... This book is really... um... nice... I will say, however, that the author gets a little carried away in her interpretation of what the cat was "feeling" during the time that they were painting. Interesting pictures and interesting reading -- don't know if i believe that a cat can be THAT moved by a painting done by Van Gogh though.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exquisite send-up of the craft of art critique
Review: Starting with a review of the history of feline art, the authors go on to explain how cats become artists, and how their owners can help develop their gifts. The section on the great contemporary cat artists is especially profound. Excellent photography, not only of their art, but also of the artists plying their craft, lends near-undeniable credibility to the extensive research published in the text. But be careful giving this book to either an artist or a cat-lover---a strong sense of humor is mandatory!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The cat's meow
Review: The first time I saw this book, I thought it was such a riot that I couldn't stop laughing. But then, as the pages progressed, a small thought crept over me -- 'could this be serious?'

I am a person owned by cats - if one includes the kittens, I've had 19 cats officially (and another half-dozen stray hangers-on who know that food will be forthcoming). It had never occurred to me to give them paint! What would happen if I did?

The photography in the book is impressive. Working with children or animals in the best of settings is never easy for a photographer, but Heather Busch is to be commended for bravery, patience, and creativity that obviously rivals the cat-subjects of the text. Stunning colour shows not only the cats' creations, but the cats themselves, often matching their artistic styles in body as well as spirit (for example, Rusty, the orange tabby, likes to paint in a rustic manner; Wong and Lulu collaborate on interesting abstractions, etc.).

The text is written with ironic skill and creative flair by Burton Silver (cats may paint, but have yet to write...). Silver (the name of one of my cats, by the way) is a writer and art critic based in New Zealand, having written on subjects such as contemporary erotic Japanese paper sculpture.

In addition to going through a contemporary survey, the authors look at the history of cat art (including a Xois funerary discovery, ancient Egyptian art, medieval illuminations, and more). It also looks at the psychology of why cats paint (hence the title) -- the fascinating theory of Invertism is a case in point, which explains why cats lie on their heads looking at objects upside down approximately 3% of the day.

A funny book. A fascinating book. A beautiful book. My cats each give it paws up!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The cat's meow
Review: The first time I saw this book, I thought it was such a riot that I couldn't stop laughing. But then, as the pages progressed, a small thought crept over me -- 'could this be serious?'

I am a person owned by cats - if one includes the kittens, I've had 19 cats officially (and another half-dozen stray hangers-on who know that food will be forthcoming). It had never occurred to me to give them paint! What would happen if I did?

The photography in the book is impressive. Working with children or animals in the best of settings is never easy for a photographer, but Heather Busch is to be commended for bravery, patience, and creativity that obviously rivals the cat-subjects of the text. Stunning colour shows not only the cats' creations, but the cats themselves, often matching their artistic styles in body as well as spirit (for example, Rusty, the orange tabby, likes to paint in a rustic manner; Wong and Lulu collaborate on interesting abstractions, etc.).

The text is written with ironic skill and creative flair by Burton Silver (cats may paint, but have yet to write...). Silver (the name of one of my cats, by the way) is a writer and art critic based in New Zealand, having written on subjects such as contemporary erotic Japanese paper sculpture.

In addition to going through a contemporary survey, the authors look at the history of cat art (including a Xois funerary discovery, ancient Egyptian art, medieval illuminations, and more). It also looks at the psychology of why cats paint (hence the title) -- the fascinating theory of Invertism is a case in point, which explains why cats lie on their heads looking at objects upside down approximately 3% of the day.

A funny book. A fascinating book. A beautiful book. My cats each give it paws up!


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