Chris Simonite's Cubo-Weirdism Blog! A Blog about Chris Simonite's Art by Chris Simonite. Who the Hell else?

I'm not one of the those people who shares a lot of their life on social media. When I first got my Facebook account, I recall posting my "status" pretty regularly. I don't remember what those were like, but I would guess they were something like: "Gonna get an Americano today!" Okay, probably not that banal. I'm sure I tried to be amusing most of the time, but a lot of it was sharing my day to day activities. And I did that for a few months and then one day I thought: "none of this is anyone's business." So that was that. Now I just post my art and my blog.

That's not to say I've never personal stuff since. When my beloved cat Wellington died suddenly in 2016, I shared it on Facebook because I really needed the condolences. Yeah, I'm a bit of a suck! And right now on this here blog here, I've decided to share what's been happening to me for the last two weeks, because I want to hear if anyone can relate. It involves something called "redirected aggression."

Two weeks ago yesterday, while my wife was just beginning a trip out of town, I got up as usual and opened the porch door. We have a great screened-in porch on which our cats Bosch and Bruegel can spend spring, summer and fall days and enjoy the fresh air, squirrels, rabbits and birds. 

Hieronymus Boschy Boy, 9" x 12", oil on canvas, 2021.

But that morning, two weeks ago something awful happened. I heard a horrible cat fight and realized it was in. My. House. We figure a cat came to visit ours and got them riled, so they redirected the aggression that should have been focussed on said cat, onto each other. But that's not the worst part. Our awesome ginger male cat Bosch also redirected his aggression towards me. Basically my boy wanted to kill me. And I had to keep away from him for close to 24 hours till we were okay again. This was likely because I was able to give him a sedative to calm him, but I like to think we would have been okay the next morning anyway. 

Bruegel the Cat, 9" x 12", oil on canvas, 2022.

The fact is, we've been sedating him for most of the these two weeks. We haven't been able to reunite our two cats and we need him calm when we do. And this is actually not the first time this has happened, but it's definitely the worst. So I guess I'm writing this to ask if you have ever experienced such a thing with your cats. And should we have gotten a dog instead? I'm really stressed by this. But at least my wife is back from her 13 day trip, so I no longer have to deal with it alone!

My Real Face, 11" x 14", oil on canvas, 2022.

This self-portrait doesn't really sum up how I feel about what's been happening. But it might show just how baffled I am by it. It's really a bizarre and scary situation. Maybe I should do a self-portrait that does sum up how I feel. We'll see. Anyway, this one is called My Real Face. I used to tell my nieces and nephews that, well, this is what my real face looks like. In other words it's hard for me not to make this face. It's a long story.

On another not, I've done many a self-portrait over the years, and I figure I should keep doing them at least once a year, like Rembrandt. I'm sure he would approve! 

One last thing, if you would ever like a portrait done in this style of one of your pets, or a family member or yourself, drop me a line, I'm almost always open for commissions! Oh, and I can also do regular portraits too. Wish me luck with my crazy cats! See you next week!