In Worcester, MA, the last day of school was going to be tomorrow, Thursday. But today is the Juneteenth holiday, and there’s a heat wave, AND they don’t have working AC in a lot of the schools — so yesterday was the last day of the school year there.
For those who listen to podcasts, History Extra just released an episode about the Victorian craze for cats. Louis Wain is featured in the discussion.Search on “History Extra Cat Crazy” to find it.
If you do a search on Louis Wain, you will mostly find his later work, when his drawings became brightly colored, energetic, and exaggerated to the point of pure abstraction. This has long been held up as a window into a mind developing schizophrenia. I first saw this when I was a kid reading the Life Science Library volume The Mind. More recently there has been pushback on the idea that he was going crazy, saying he was just pushing the boundaries of his art. One service that the movie does is to present a look at the main body of his work. He produced thousands of portrayals of charming cats doing human activities.
I’ve seen it, and I think readers of this strip will find it intriguing. It’s a biopic about Louis Wain, an artist who was very interested in cats. I look forward to your comments after you finish watching it.
i’m so sorry. The last time we had no cats in the house was eleven years ago this week. It was unbearable. So it will be the eleventh anniversary of us adopting our current pair of cats next Friday.
In Worcester, MA, the last day of school was going to be tomorrow, Thursday. But today is the Juneteenth holiday, and there’s a heat wave, AND they don’t have working AC in a lot of the schools — so yesterday was the last day of the school year there.