Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Sanctity of My Studio Has Been Breached

Church, 2008, Oil on Gessobord, 5x5

It's been such a pleasure to have a pet free studio. No cat hair floating around, no hairballs, no little paw prints running across the wet gesso, it's like heaven now. I do allow Mr. Wilson to come up with me in the mornings for his nap, but we have a strict rule that he must stay in his cushion next to my desk. He is NOT allowed to walk around smelling things, which always leads to him having to lift his little leg, usually at the corner of a very expensive birch panel. heh.

Once in awhile the one cat or another (we have four) tries to come up but I immediately send them packing. However a few nights ago, Jones must have slipped by me, then had to spend the night after I closed the door for the night. I almost felt sorry for him when I heard him meowing desperately to get out the next morning, but then I was just ticked off after I found that he had left me a smelly gift. Yuck! Guess he just couldn't hold it all night.

I used to be able to leave my door open a bit so that I could hear what's going on in the rest of the house. Now though, I am keeping it closed tightly, so that I don't have to start keeping things put away like I had to do in my previous studio which was open to the whole house.

Jones has ruined things for the rest of us...

6 comments:

Making A Mark said...

I take it they're not house trained?

My two are the main reasons I haven't got into oil painting. It's bad enough when Cosmo wants to sit next to me while I'm drawing - before launching himself onto the drawing paper - because of course I'm paying more attention to it than I am to him...............

Boys!!!

Tracy Helgeson said...

The cats are litter trained, but Jones was caught in the studio and didn't have access to the litter box, and just couldn't wait I guess.

Mr. Wilson, is pretty much trained, but it took a very long time and no one trusts him quite yet. He doesn't always tell us when he needs to go out:)

It's true, the boys are definitely less concerned about having accidents than the girls are!

Melody said...

Simba is not allowed in my studio any longer as he once caught a mouse(hopefully from outside) and proceeded to bring it into the studio and leave it behind my desk. It was half eaten too so that really made me sick. I know he was trying to "gift" me but that was a gift I could do without.

Olga Norris said...

Have you thought about having a baby monitor so that you can hear what is going on in the rest of the house? A friend who had her workshop just outside the house but had the phone in the house used one in order to be able to answer the phone. She could hear everything else that was going on too!

Natalya Khorover Aikens said...

ugh... so sorry...

Tracy Helgeson said...

Melody, Yuck, a half eaten mouse? Way worse than a little poop, even if it was a bit runny:) Very thoughtful cat though, mine aren't quite so much...

Olga, we actually discussed getting a baby monitor, mostly so I could hear if there was someone at the door. Ended up not doing it, but maybe I should. Thanks for the reminder.

Yeah, pretty gross. Not used to seeing cat poop outside the litter box.