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Acrylic on canvas, probably by Pangorda
24"x22"
Acquired by Tom Stankowicz from the Children's Hospital Thrift Store

A comment on issues of power as experienced by those who dwell with feline pets. Is the artist consumed with or consumed by his love for this cat? Does he identify with the personality of the startling animal? Does the similarity between these inseparable cohabitants stop short at the nose? Or is he simply trying to observe a tree-lined avenue through a cat's eyes?

"In the Cat's Mouth" is one of a series of five paintings presented in MOBA's Permanent Gallery as part of the "I Just Can't Stop" exhibition.

EXERPT FROM THE MOBA NEWS, ISSUE #31
Tom Stankowicz, director of photography on MOBA's CD-ROM, had just stumbled on a set of five paintings by the same artist in a hospital thrift store. "I couldn't be sure, but I felt in my bones that this was it," said Mr. Stankowicz.

Mr. Wilson, our Esteemed Curator, was immediately alerted. Hearing the details of the find, he canceled his afternoon appointment at the local Salvation Army shop and rushed back to the MOBA offices.

Only moments after Mr. Stankowicz arrived and displayed the paintings to the stunned MOBA staff, Mr. Wilson arrived. Seeing the curator in such an agitated state, Tom tried to downplay the find -- "I can't be sure, I'm no expert."

Mr. Wilson spotted the canvases in the corner, rushed past Mr. Stankowicz, and spun the first painting around. It was a vaguely Mediterranean scene filled with misshapen human limbs and the hindquarters of an indeterminate animal all inexplicably frozen in cubes of ice. From the dazed look on Mr. Wilson's face, all assembled knew that "this was it". One after another he viewed the remaining canvases -- that same dazed look only deepened in Mr. Wilson's eyes.

He turned slowly back towards the staff and began to speak slowly and quietly, picking up steam as he went. "Not... since... last year's find... the Bright Colors / Dark Emotions collection... have I seen a body of work from a single artist with such a bold and intuitive grasp of every thing this museum stands for. Look at them, look at them," he cried. "Five unique styles and subjects -- each one united with the next into a single unified whole... and the animals, the animals..."

No one had noticed, but yes, every canvas had a household pet, or portions of one somehow worked into the piece. In the foreground or the background in the abstract or the concrete.