Cats and Creatures
Cats, and then creatures. For two weeks at the end of August 2022 nearly every drawing was a cat: black, boxy, big-eared, standing or sitting in a striped room with its teeth showing. Then, in the first days of September, the cats gave way to flat single creatures, each one color on one color. Twenty-six works, August 20 to September 14.
The cats are built the way the masks were, from boxes, rings and grilles, but they have bodies now, and rooms to stand in. Stripes run behind them like wallpaper or a fence. Two of them share one drawing, and that drawing exists twice, published 85 seconds apart, the second time with a signature.
Watch the stroke count fall. The cats are drawn in two to five hundred strokes. The flat creatures that follow them take thirty to fifty. The room ends on a scribbled horse that takes forty.
The First Cats
August 20 to 24. Six cats in five days, from a crowned cat mask to a white cat on yellow.
NNOTB #237
A black cat mask with a yellow crown sits on a dark red body, on a ground of gold scribbled with yellow bars. One eye is a blue ring with a cross in it, the other a yellow ring with a Z. The mouth is a box of white teeth under a yellow zigzag. It is the first work after the mask summer, drawn on August 20, 2022, and it is both things at once: the last mask and the first cat.
NNOTB #240
A black cat head with one red spiral eye and one blue, a grin of white teeth, and a crest of green, set in a weave of blue, yellow and black bars.
NNOTB #242
A cat figure stands with one arm raised in a room of purple and blue stripes, two round yellow eyes with flowers in them, a box of teeth below.
NNOTB #243
A black cat with two glowing yellow eyes and a wide grille of white teeth fills the square, its ears tall, its chest a black block over a red rug. The eyes are drawn as yellow rings with light inside them, and the teeth are a long bar with black between each one. Stripes of yellow, pink and white stand behind the cat like a curtain. With 395 recorded strokes it is the densest of the first cats.
NNOTB #244
A blue cat with white ringed eyes and a red zigzag grin on a body of red and black bars.
NNOTB #245
A tan cat face with four boxed eyes, a red nose and a grin of white teeth, on scored white.
Two Cats, Twice
August 24 to 26. A seated cat in a red room, a white creature in a yellow one, a cat on cream, and a drawing of two cats that was published twice.
NNOTB #246
A black cat sits upright in a room of blue and red stripes, its face a white loop with a spiral eye, its body ruled with pink lines like a cage.
NNOTB #247
A white cat with a long neck and a red mouth sits in a yellow room, a small black cat at its feet and a bird on a perch at the upper left.
NNOTB #248
A black cat stands on a cream ground with a red X over each eye, its ears tipped in pink, a grin of white teeth, and a pink collar around its neck. Its tail rises in a hook. The room behind it is pale: a few blocks of orange, blue and grey, and thin lines running in loops. It is the quietest cat in the room, and the first with the X in both eyes.
NNOTB #249
Two black cats side by side, the left one with a red X over one eye and a blue ring in the other, the right one with a red X and a green box. A small blue cat sits between them on a shelf. Below them a maze of black boxes with white line, and a yellow spiral at the right edge. The drawing was published on August 25, 2022, without a signature.
NNOTB #249
The same drawing, published again 85 seconds later, with one addition: the yellow signature at the lower right. Everything else is the same, the two cats, the small blue cat, the maze. Nine more strokes were recorded, and they are the signature. Both were kept, and both hang here.
Compare with #249, in this room
NNOTB #251
A cat-eared mask with two ringed eyes full of green and pink line, a cage of white teeth in a red mouth, and yellow beads along the right edge, on pale blue.
Last Cats
August 26 to 28. Two cats drawn in white, a dense scene with a bird, a scribbled cat on cream, and a cat robot in the dark.
NNOTB #252
A white cat on black, its face a mass of pink, blue and yellow line, with a red X over one eye and a wide open eye on the other side, a blue beam coming in from the left, and a wide grin of white teeth. The ears are tall and striped. Blue and pink beads run down both sides. Its 437 recorded strokes are the most in the room.
NNOTB #253
A white cat head with one eye closed and one open, red ears, three black whiskers.
NNOTB #254
A dense scene with a yellow bird on a perch, a rocket, a creature in a green net, a figure with spiky hair at the lower left and a pink face at the right, on black with white crosses.
NNOTB #255
A black cat sits on cream under yellow and white scribble, two blue spiral eyes and a blue grin.
NNOTB #256
A black cat robot with a green box eye and a red box eye, a grille of white teeth, and a yellow zigzag running down its side, in the dark.
Flat Creatures
August 28 to September 2. The drawings empty out. A white coat and a black figure on purple, a brown figure on maroon, and then single creatures in one color on one color.
NNOTB #257
Two figures on purple: a white coat with a red cap, drawn in a few black lines, and a small black figure with a cloud of curly hair and a yellow eye. Eighty-two recorded strokes. Two days after the white cat on black, with its hundreds of lines, the drawing has emptied out to two shapes and a flat ground.
Compare with #252, in this room
NNOTB #258
A brown figure with two bars of zigzag across its eyes and waist stands on maroon.
NNOTB #261
Two creatures with crowns and red ringed eyes lean on each other on a floor of yellow stripes, in a room of blue stripes, drawn in white, pink and black line.
NNOTB #263
A dark red figure dances on yellow, one leg raised, its head a long oval with a few yellow stitches, drawn in thirty-one strokes.
NNOTB #264
A blue creature with a crest of zigzag and a yellow spiral eye walks on dark red, one arm held out, its body striped with the ground color.
NNOTB #265
A pink creature with a crocodile snout, a target eye and a crest of spikes stands on black with one leg raised, its fur drawn in pink zigzag.
NNOTB #266
A teal creature drawn in line only, with a crest of zigzag, a red target eye and red teeth, standing on dark grey with its arms hanging.
NNOTB #268
A black skull in profile on lavender, with an X for an eye and a few purple lines for the jaw and the teeth, ringed with short black wavy lines. A black oval lies below it like a shadow. It is the flat silhouette from the spring, back for one drawing, and the X that sat on the cats' eyes is now the only mark on the face.
Compare with #248, in this room
NNOTB #284
Twelve days later, a horse drawn in yellow, orange and white scribble over a black body, walking on teal with its head down and a mane of white lines.
Closing
Look again at the first cat, crowned and packed to the edges of the square, and then at the skull in profile, one black shape on lavender. The room moved from hundreds of strokes to a few dozen in two weeks. The X stayed in the eye the whole way.