meet cookie and bernadette

image courtesy of the artist, with thanks

This most charming linoleum block print is called "The Goddess." Meet Cookie, one of the feline inspirations belonging to - or is that the other way round? - artist and writer Bernadette E. Kazmarski.

"I have my cats to thank for being an artist," Bernadette writes. "When, as an adult, I chose to pick up a pencil and paper and put them together, it was because images of my cats kept appearing in my thoughts as pencil drawings and paintings and I decided to draw what I was envisioning." And that includes such moments as Cookie's bellyrub command, above, captured in the split second before one caves in and goes for the tummy. I know it well from experience.

The directness of linoleum (and wood) block lends itself perfectly to immediate, strong images; what got me with Bernadette's work is the sheer character she's worked in with the tilt of a head and the curl of a foot. You can see and delight in much more work in many mediums when you visit her Etsy store, Portraits of Animals (where I first found her and Cookie!), and her marketplace blog. Her blog, The Creative Cat, is full of written portraits of the creatures she loves, along with useful and entertaining news.

Really, there's so much to Bernadette E. Kazmarski that I should simply point you once more to her main site and say, "Adventure time!" But do be sure to read about the cat portrait that essentially started it all. "It’s been magic since then, not just with my portraits and other animal artwork, but with all my artwork. I may have arrived at that point as an artist eventually, but it was my deep feeling for Stanley that delivered me to the door, which I had only to open."

As Sir Kenneth Clark wrote, "Facts are made art through love." And how true this is for Bernadette.