Lots of reasons to celebrate!

• A dozen cat tessellations, created between 1988—2018.
• Post #150 on my tessellation blog.
• A new year, 2018, year of the dog. Let’s entertain them. What better way to entertain a dog, than dangle a cat in front of it. Just kidding.
• 10,000 hits on this site, just a few weeks ago.
• My first tessellation ever, was drawn by hand 30 years past, January 1988.

Cats, chats, gato, Katz. We see them every day, so their forms, their habits, their poses and attitudes are burned into our memory. Any nooks or crannies in the house or outside, can contain a cat. Tessellations are all about fitting beings into tight and weird shapes. Cats are perfect for that. It is quite easy to stretch feline forms into a tessellation tile using any of the seventeen symmetry systems. I haven’t explored all the systems with cats, but quite a few. Here goes. Looking, seeing and understanding mean three different things.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

1. Aloof the cat, 2015, symmetry group P3. Some symmetry groups allow for wicked twirls, 2, 3, 4 or 6 intertwined figures. In this case, three cat tails spin into a mass of grey fur. And of course, they can’t help it, they must remain aloof, above the mere class of humans.
2. Cat Tails into the Next Galaxy, 2013, symmetry group P1. Any shape works in symmetry group P1. As you can see from the Cat Tails tessellation. Follow the cat’s tail and see how far you get. A most unusual stamp!
3. Cougars, 2015, symmetry group P4. A very big cat, a most unusual creature that I was fortunate enough to see… from the house deck at that. A bit too close, a bit too confident and hungry.
4. Decker Sleeps, 2013, symmetry group P1. This one has to be my favourite P1 tessellation. Decker was a smart cat.
5. Devils and Cats, 2013, symmetry group Cm. Just a sketch at this point, built using a series of parallel mirrors with alternating glide reflections in between. Looks inevitably like staggered stacks of objects.
6. Sam’s Panther, 2015, symmetry group Pmg. A commission using a school mascot, head and paws/claws only.
7. Puss ‘n Boots, 2014, symmetry group P3. Three 3-way rotations and no mirrors makes for a flowing tessellation. At this point, I am still not convinced that recolouring a tessellation with different hue schemes for different directions of the characters helps identify the different cats. A mess of fur and clothing.
8. Stalkerpuss, 2015, symmetry group Pg.  Still working on this one. Takes a while to draw such a mass of fur. In two colours. I’ll post it when it’s done — for now, white and grey cats.
9. Where’s the Litter Box, 2013, symmetry group P6. Six twirling tails in this one, vs. Aloof’s three tail twirl. No details required in this awkward topic and awkward layout.
10. Bébé Alonzo, 1993, symmetry group P2. A single handmade print from a single screen. Labour intensive. I like my iPad. Okay for a child’s room with a very bright colour palette.
11. Cat Hill, Qu’a t-il?, 1989, symmetry group P2. A screen print from the 90s. It was part of the show in Cornwall Ontario in 1994 at the Regional Gallery.
12. Aqua and Magenta, 1992, symmetry group P2. A single drawing here as well. Based on the Cat Hill image.

Cheers!