“Mudcat Dream” contemporary figurative painting. acrylic on canvas 30 in x 24 in

“Mudcat Dream” contemporary figurative painting

I often have dreams about Mississippi and what it would be like to go back home.  Mudcats or yellow cats have a slightly yellow tint to their skin.  They can live in the muddiest, most oxygen-poor water.  They taste the fishiest of all catfish, so most people don’t eat them, but a lot of older country people will, or used to, and say it’s pretty good.  I always gave mine away if I saw anybody else fishing.  I did the same thing with any gar.

The Delta has all sorts of vines, a lot poison oak, trumpet creeper, dewberry, but the one you always see growing on the mud at the edge of fields is morning glory.  I don’t think it’s native.  I think it came from Africa and was brought to the Americas as an ornamental, and then it escaped.  It seems to do well in the heat and humidity of the Delta and is actually a serious weed problem for farmers now.

“Mudcat Dream” has some features that create a sense of space in the painting.  Specifically, the isometric perspective of the corner of the room and the open window.  This isometric perspective is reinforced by the walls and floor being colored differently and the dropout of color outside the window.  The floating figures and the morning glory vine also contribute to sense of space in the painting