Winners of the Red White and Blue Patriotic Cats Contest on Fine Art America

We often think of ourselves as the only cats in the whole world, but our human often “brings us down to earth” by paying attention to OTHER CATs, particularly in the artistic world.  I know...hard to believe she could stop thinking of US so often isn’t it?

Well this week she was “taken over” by the patriotic spirit and hosted a contest for her fellow artists on Fine Art America.  The images which follow are from the talented ARTIST WINNERS of that contest and their creative cats!  Without further ado, we present...”THE WINNAHS!”

1st Place:  Marilyn DeBlock's winning entry “Patriotic Kitty,”  is an adorable cat, holding a flag and created in AI from one of her own photos.  Marilyn, a talented photographer-artist retired from a corporate career, often photographed events for her company newspaper.  She now specializes in beautiful photography & art of flowers, nature & pet photography and her company, “Picture This” creates awesome greeting cards.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/patriotic-kitty-marilyn-deblock.html

2nd Place:  Debra Kewley’s entry, “Patriotic Kitties”  our second place winner, features four way-too-cute-kittens, enmeshed in an American flag.  Debra is a passionate nature photographer & artist who lives to create fun & colorful digital, AI & mixed. media artwork.  Her photos were featured in many publications and she’s a frequent award winner in Fine Art America contests. She lived in Florida for many years and now resides in Colorado.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/patriotic-kitties-debra-kewley.html

3rd Place (tie) Charles Pace - our 3rd place winner’s creative entry was an extreme close up of a beautiful white cat with the American flag reflected in her blue eyes!  Charles, an illustrator, artist & designer is a graduate of the Art Institute of Boston and has had a long career including advertising, theme park design and film.  

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/catriot-charles-pace.html

3rd Place (tie):  Louise Lavallee’s entry, “Pat the Cat” is an AI creation of a large cat sitting proudly on a pedestal with an American flag nearby.  Obviously this cat knows about “domination!”  Louise is an artist/painter who lives in Montreal and especially loves creating book and CD covers, using her own photography as inspiration.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/cat-pat-louise-lavallee.html

                                                                  *******

Our human, Carol, created links to these fine individuals’ art pages on Fine Art America, if you would like to check out more of their art.  We all do sell our artwork through this site, and the images are available as prints, pillow, and many other home items and wearables.

Carol’s FineArt America address is https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/carol-lowbeer.

You might wonder why there are no picture of US in this post, or of Carol’s own Fine Art work.  Well, you will find that in our accompanying Fourth of July post on the same day.   We object to having “other cats” admired, but, well, its all in the name of A-R-T!

We are joining the Caturday hop, Sunday and Monday hops, in honor of this Independence Day occasion!

Your truly,

Peaches & Paprika

Calico cats of Distinction who have graciously given up the spotlight to others in the name of Art

Mom Carol’s Cat Creations

Do I look happy about it here?

 We tried to stop her, but she would have none of it.  Yes, OUR Mom Carol insisted on creating portraits of cats other than ourselves.  We no longer have the control of her we used to and she truly went AWOL this week, with the project.  She even held a contest for red, white and blue cats on Fine Art America.  

She DID finally agree to INCLUDE pictures of us in her Patriotic Collection, but we had to threaten to wake her up daily at 4am for her to agree to this.

But, well...it IS the day before her birthday...I guess we’ll cut her alittle slack. This time.

Here are the “other cats” she created, along with some enhanced pictures of US!

This is Mr. Americat.  Actually, he’s very handsome with those red and blue eyes.  Paprika wants a date with him but I’ve got first dibs! - Peaches the cat

Mr. Americat

Here is “IVAN INDEPENDENCE.”  He DOES cut a fine figure doesn’t he, with that wavy red bow.  He is, however, our SECOND choice as “boyfriend.

Ivan Independence

HOWEVER, There IS some competition. Her. name is “Mrs 4th of July." Look at this stuck up cat with her “over the top” tail.  She thinks she’s hot stuff, with blue eyes and swirly rear end, but we bet she’s never even caught a mouse!

Mrs 4th of July

No sooner did we recover from encountering “Mrs 4th of July,” when another stuck-up female popped up into our line of vision...:”Ms. Red, White and Blue.”  We think she has a long way to go, thinking all she has to do is wear those overly blue heart-shaped glasses.  We bet they cover up a HANG-OVER! 

Ms. Red, White & Blue

Well, there is one cat-dream who came along to make this little exercise totally worthwhile.  His name, Sweet Sandy Ameri-cat, reflects the real gentleman he is,  and look at that cute little beret.  No attitude here! Paprika and I will have to fight over him.

Sweet Sandy Amiri-Cat

Our last (unwelcome) visitor is one we both fear - her name is FIREWORKS FANNIE, and she heralds what we all fear and dread...the boom boom noises and flashing lights which terrify her.  But Our human assures us we will be SAFE even when she’s around.

Last but absolutely not least are some pawe-some pictures of me and Paprika.  Maybe we’re not as “outrageous” as those “other” cats but we can hold our own...and we’re in it for the long haul!

Me, Myself and I...Peaches the Cat

And Paprika can also hold her own.  Look at that beautiful red chair she found to sit on.  She does look alittle dazed though, from all the action...

Last but not least, our human added insult to injury and created a little video of this “other cats.” If you’re not tired of looking at them. yet, there’s always the video! 

Love, Carol, Peaches, Paprika, and all the other Catriotic Cats of Independence Day

Cat World Domination Day- How we Rule our Household

 This is the day where the fact we cats RULE THE WORLD is honored.  Of course, we rule the world every day and certainly our household for sure!  We designate mealtimes, places to hang out and much, much more.  

PEACHES THE CAT’S POST:  Why just yesterday, I decided that lying on the desk on top of my human’s papers was the perfect place to rest my beautiful furs.  She was just using the computer, so why shouldn’t I sit on the desk below the computer?  My thought was that my human should be delighted to have my company.  She’s always telling me how gorgeous I am, does she mean it or not?  When she protested she NEEDED those papers to work on the computer, I rolled over on my back, exposing my beautiful white furs (second to none)  and she forgot all abut the stupid computer.  Just another example of how I RULE...

--Peaches the Cat

PAPRIKA THE CAT’S POST:  A good example of how I rule is this:  When my human is at the computer, I jump on the back of her tall chair REGULARLY, and then descend from there to her lap.  It would be boring just to crawl on her lap, any cat can do THAT.  My more dramatic way of arriving through the air should be tried by all cats.  Not only is there an element of SUPRISE, it is hard for my human to remove me from her shoulder during my skilled descent.

-- Paprika the cat

and now we ask:  how do YOU show your humans how you dominate and rule the household?

We are joining Athena the Cat GODDESS for a little creative hop or two.

In Memory of Raz - of the Friends Furever Blog

Even though Raz of the Friends Furever blog has departed for The Rainbow Bridge & been honored, we also wanted to write this tribute because he was an active purr-ticipant on the Peaches & Paprika Facebook page since 2017!  It’s only right we should share our treasured memories with you. What a cool guy he was!

Highlights of Raz:   Activities you may not know about

He was a prize winner in our yearly “Os-kat” awards for cat-ti-tude and our Cat House contest, Gotcha Day celebration, Kitty Dad Day, Kitty Mama Day, Cowboy Events and more!  He will be missed!

We would like to show you pictures of our friend Raz at these events.  We think you’ll enjoy seeing them! (By the way, he always was a true gentleman!)

Catmas 2017

The earliest picture we found of Raz is celebrating the holiday of Catmas. You’ll notice that though there are fascinating objects in front of him, he restrains himself from exploring & pouncing on them. It can’t have been “easy.  What a cat! 

Kitty Dad Day - 2018

Mom Sharon supplied this delightful photo of Raz looking very small next to her beloved late husband.  She could probably tell us the year to which this goes back.

November 2018:  1st Prize Winner in Best Cat Tree Contest  

Shortly before the Christmas Holidays, we held a contest on “Best Cat Tree” AND “Best USE” of one’s Cat Tree."  Though Raz’s cat tree didn’t win,  Raz himself won first prize in a special category:  “most creative use of cat tree.” As you can see his artful position, and outstretched white foot with visible toes says it all!

February 2019:  Love Cats Celebration (Valentines)

Raz is looking quite dapper in his new red hat, red heart ornament and and even asking for contacts via text with his “heart” request!

May 2019: Kitty Mama Day

When we put together a fur-ball slideshow of kitties and their cat moms, Mom Sharon was one of the first to respond and sent me this adorable picture of herself communing with  the man of the hour. He looks pretty fond of her!

  

February 2020 - Valentines Day

Roz was a big hearts and flowers guy, as you can see when he celebrated yet another “Love Cats” Day with us.  Although he might be giving “mixed messages with those big hearts he’s displaying!

October 2020 - Meowleen Parade

Raz became a pirate when he purr-tipated in our Meowleen Parade in 2020. You may wonder why this handsome fellow didn’t participate in all of our Meowleen events. that’s because he had household competition!  Mom Sharon had to “share the wealth” and she sometimes selected his housemate Noelle for  our shows.  Isn’t he a cute pirate though?

“CAT-MATCH!” February 2020 

This was our show of shows with 25 “couples” and 50 purr-ticipants. Why shouldn’t there be “cat couples?”  Each cat submitted his or picture and main interests and activities.  They were then 

presented with their most “appropriate match.”  Lucky Raz won the 

hand of gorgeous Sophie, a high-spirited calico with compatible interests!  Their quirks and “ideal date” are described in their poster.

April 2021 - The “Os-kat” Awards - Raz wins “Cattitude” Prize!

During the Covid era, we spiced up some evenings by giving “cat-titude” and other talent awards on Oscar night to our “Os-kats.” As you can see from this photo, this Cattitude prize is well deserved - just look at those ears! 

July 2022 - “Day of the Cowboy” Event  

We sometimes create a country & western slideshow with fur ball “stars" to commemorate this whimsical July cowboy holiday.   Each cat gets a new“Outlaw” name to add fun to the event.  It's obvious that Rebel-Rousing Raz was a cooperative purr-ticipant.

December 2022 - “Mew Year” Painted Cat show

It’s so fun to see your fur-balls look completely different for their “Mew Year’s Party.”  White cats become pink, black cats become red and green...anything can happen!  As you see, our handsome Raz has turned “gold” (with a little turquoise lighting) to join in the festivities.

************************

What can we say?  Raz was not only part of the blogging community, he was an integral part of our community on the Peaches and Paprika page.  Some of our fur-balls and their humans like Sharon & Raz have been with us many years so he is a family member to us!  We will grieve and miss him, our heart goes out to fur-mom, Sharon.  But we SO much wanted to show you what he was up to, having a blast in our shows.  Busy guy!  He will be missed by many!

                                           *************

If you’ve gotten this far, thank you for sharing our colorful memories of Raz.  We will be participating in The Cat on My Head Sunday Blog Hop and The Cat Blogosphere blogs this weekend.