louiscatorze.com

There is a lot of art that I like. However, for me, there is a clear distinction between “I like looking at that” and “I would have that in my house”. Very few pieces manage both.

Someone who DOES attain that holy grail of the shared segment in the Venn diagram is Mark S. Gagne, a Canadian artist who specialises in dark, folkloresque visions. Now, Mark has never met Louis Catorze, except perhaps in his nightmares, yet he somehow manages to capture his essence in many of his works, even those that don’t feature cats.

I recently treated myself to a couple of his prints and, as you can see from this picture, Catorze approves. In this one, the fact that the black vampire cat has a levitating crown is very fitting … although, as a friend pointed out, to make it truly Catorzian the crown would say 666 instead of 9.

(In numerology, the number 9 is said to signify “a humanitarian at heart; it is compassionate, kind, and intent on putting its efforts toward creating the greatest good”. So clearly the artist has a sense of humour as well as talent.)

If you want to buy Mark S Gagne’s art, have look here. His website is well worth a visit at any time of year, but something about this month makes it a very pleasurable browse indeed.