1. When I was 8? My brother and I had 4, red ear pet turtles we got from our uncle’s pet store one spring. We excitedly brought them home and promptly named them after the four Renaissance painters of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael. We kept them in a large bowl in the kitchen, they never grew any bigger, slowly stopped eating, grew lethargic, and died that winter. Burying the bodies myself was a lonely affair, the ground was frozen, so I wrapped them in plastic and stuck them in the freezer until the ice melted outside. I don’t know where my parents were, I just remember dealing with it myself. There were no tears shed, nor hugs, nor kisses given after I lost my first pet, which might explain how my displaced feelings end up in paintings with animals all the time.
2. When I was 12, I had a beautiful red and purple beta fish. It lived in my room and I fed and cleaned the bowl it came in as instructed. One day after school I found it had jumped out of the bowl and committed suicide, whether on purpose or not, I’ll never know. Down the flusher it went, another very lonely experience.
3. When I was 13, my family got me a hamster. It was a cute little furry thing but it bit me when I tried to play with it. I remained its caretaker, putting food out for it, letting it roll around the house in his exercise ball, and cleaned his cage when it got smelly. I wouldn’t say we were best of pals but the playful rattle in his cage was always decent company. He escaped his cage one night though and we didn’t see him for weeks, until I came home from school one day to learn that he was found dead behind the washer. I was told he got into a fight with a rat and that was the end of that. Didn’t have anymore pets after that.

Is that why I paint so many house pets? They’re always thriving too, this one’s got a big hunk of cheese. He’s trapped his enemies, the snake and the cat, in cupboards because he’s a resilient MF with a litter of babies too. This house pet is doing just fine 👌

Mouse In Da House
acrylic on canvas
4 x 4 ft.
2021
Still avai!

#museumoffailures #housepet #cuteanimals #housemouse #surreal