this tuesday’s [talking pictures] is a very sweet one, and it’s from one of my favorite artists and flickr friends, vivienne strauss. vivienne just moved to Portland, Oregon with her husband, (also an artist!) Matte Stephens and their wonderful menagerie of cats. Vivienne is a wonderful artist who also likes to collect vintage ceramic poodles, is a big fan of old films, Eva Zeisel works and Vera scarves. You can visit Vivienne’s etsy shop here to see her latest paintings, or to see her beautiful collage work, visit her other etsy shop here. thanks for sharing Viv!

here’s the story behind vivienne strauss’ [talking pictures]: “Matte and I met Irving at Cat Haven veterinary clinic on January 18th, 2008 on the unfortunate day when we had to have our 19 year old cat, Isabelle, put to sleep.  She had been very sick off and on the past year but at the end, we knew we were doing the right thing as her quality of life was gone.  Though we knew Isabelle was better off, we were both inconsolable.  Matte went back to Cat Haven later that day and came home with Irving.  Irving is a ginger colored tabby who was 8 months old at the time and had been living at the clinic since he was a tiny kitten.  Someone had dumped him on their doorstep one night with a terrible infection that caused him to lose an eye.   He got along fine with the other cats living there but never responded much to the people working there and no one adopted him because of his missing eye.  Irving made himself right at home with us and a few months later, made the move all the way across the country with us to Portland, OR.  It is hard to tell how fat he is in this photo but he is shaped a bit like Humpty Dumpty.  Though he hasn’t really replaced Isabelle, we still miss her and probably always will, he is very special to us and find his “imperfections” are what make him most endearing.”