Visual Assignment: Fat Cats make Art Better
Using this site: http://fatcatart.ru/category/klassy-ka/ as a platform for ideas, and using Photoshop (or something like it) as your tool, place a fat cat into a photo of a classic art piece. The goal is to make it convincing: make the art become on with the cat.
Unbelievably, I haven’t written any DS106 blog post for this section. After submitting reports and essays for other classes, I sort of went into short hibernation. Although, I have been thinking about this and that in my head starting from Neuromancer to Web 2.0 and the future of cyberspace. Was I slacking off? Kind of. Well, today I decided to be part of the Fat Cat craze and share my piece.
I don’t reckon people know that I was an AP Art student back in my high school years. The art teacher I had constantly insisted that I should be a visual art critic, and I was and I am still interested in art history and philosophy. Yet, I chose to pursue another field of art, and thus, going through a bit of a rough ride I ended up being here in Temple. As I’m writing this I feel like I need to listen to the ballad “Dream On”. And speaking of dreams, the classical art piece I used for the assignment is one of the notable works of the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali, who portrays dream images and landscapes. I’m talking about a different definition of dream, but anyway, the title of the piece is “The Persistence of Memory”.
This is my first attempt at creating an image using Pixlr which Scott recommended in the CIS blog on Monday. The online photo editor is quite easy to maneuver. I used GIMP to manipulate images for The Pioneer section and it took me time to figure things out. So Pixlr is a nice discovery. Thanks for recommending it Scott.
To tell the truth, there is not much to comment on the process. My initial idea was to place a cat in some wintry ukiyo-e, but I was unsuccessful in finding any that are usable. I abandoned the idea and turned towards western art. Dali was an easier piece to work on, because of the surreal nature it had. Placing a ginormous cat in the scenery would look just fine. Personally, I think at least half of the burden was on researching images for the process.
I love cats (or most smaller mammals) and lived near them all my life, despite the allergy I supposedly have. If you got interested, try this assignment and join the Fat Cat craze!
- Image: The Persistence of Memory :p by ahisgett – CC Licensed via Flickr
- Image: fat cat :p by Yukari* – CC Licensed via Flickr
neopessimist23 
This is so good. The expression on the cat is though he/she is wondering: “why am in this weird Dali painting?” I love the connection you made to the Aerosmith song, too.
But I think what I like most of all is the way you were able to put a bit of your own story into this assignment. This was a very enjoyable read and the image you’ve put together is terrific.
As I can see, there is only one thing keeping you from getting full credit on this one. Can you figure it out before the Scoring Day? It’s a pretty simple one that can be fixed with an itsy-bitsy hyperlink.
Thank you! Of all the chubby cats I’ve found on Flickr, she is the one I picked out because…I don’t know. Maybe it’s fate. Somehow I instantly thought she would be perfect in Dali’s landscape.
I’m glad that you enjoyed the reading. I was wondering if I digressed too much or not from the purpose of the article.
I think I know what I was missing. Attribution to the photos I used, isn’t it? It was there before, but it was missing from the post when I read your comment. I think I didn’t save the changes. Anyway, I hope I have everything I need.
What a perfect choice for placement of a Fat Cat, the surreal. I think he is wondering, “What time is it? how will I know when it is dinner time with all these drippy clocks?”
Yes. Surrealism lets you do bizarre things. I like your observation on the warped clocks! You never know what the cat’s thinking.
I agree with Scott, this is brilliant, and it is now a part of the best of Pantheon. And given this assignment was so amazing, why was your Daily Create picture for today so lackluster? Not even the time to focus the shot?
The Pantheon of the Fat Cat Art? Yeah-ah! And I agree with you about Scott’s Daily Create picture.
My Daily Create picture? What are you guys talking about? I don’t think he’s talking about mine.
Aww~, what a cute kitty! Very nice job with the picture, Marina!
Thanks for commenting on my Dali cat and Weiner image, Ken. The process for this assignment was really simple, but I’m personally satisfied with what I’ve came up with.
Wow, this cat is even more fat than me:-) Go ahead. By the way, from what country you are?
Hello. Yes, the cat is BIG. I’ve never seen one this size!
To answer your question, I’m from Japan.
We are pleased to be kown in Japan and inspire people. We are thinking to make a Japanese verision of our site)
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Hello, here is Our version of this painting http://fatcatart.ru/2012/05/the-persistence-of-memory/?lang=en. Thank you for inspiring Us.