Reflecting on My Hawa Cat Painting Series

Musing about this collection of 15 paintings and my father

6/15/20263 min read

Artist Eve Hennessy in studio with Hawa Cat paintings

Don't read this blog post because this is just me talking straight into my computer unedited. This is a picture of me and my studio and the new place where I live on Buzzards Point in Washington DC. That tan is straight out of South Carolina.

I thought I would recount the story of how I made 15 Hawa Cat paintings. I never paint small like that but those canvases were on sale for such a great deal, I bought three packs of five. Then one day I thought well I could just do 15 Hawa Cats. I wish I had stopped myself because 15 paintings takes a really long time and especially I was getting into doing landscapes after a very long time of just doing abstract and digital caricature.

The whole thing took about two years off and on. When I paint I don't like to know what I'm doing first I really like it to be a surprise and I like everyone to be different so it was a agreed investigation and helped to get me back into painting. Then I realize I really love landscapes and even my abstract works mostly have a lot to do with landscapes.

During that time my father got sick and passed away. So these paintings just really remind me of him. It was great to be able to sit down and paint during this time. Painting is an incredible refuge for me. I usually listen to literature I was listening to some English literature Jane Eyre and some of those old stories Far from the Madding Crowd.by Thomas Hardy. I know it sounds depressing to say that my father got sick and die but it was really one of the most beautiful times of my life. I would go visit him for five nights a week in the hospital. We got to spend time together without any of the other families members they're stressing out and dominating the conversation. Not that we talk that much we mostly just listen to music and I would bring these battery flicker candles and we had a beautiful time. I always took after my dad and he was a philosopher humanitarian and a beautiful southern gentlemen who is a modern day atheist up until the last few weeks.

This isn't really a blog post it's just me having a memory. I really felt like I wasted so much time on those paintings because if I made the same painting 10 times bigger I can sell it for so much money but this size painting even though it's the same amount of work as a large painting is hard to sell for very much but we'll see what happens. I'm very concerned about money and I don't apologize. Artists have to eat and it's a very tough career.

I love these paintings and I will probably have a show of them in my own space here on buzzards point. If you're interested in coming to my shows sign up for my newsletter. I would like to show them somewhere else as well

About Eve Hennessa

Eve Hennessa is a contemporary artist whose work moves between painting, digital art, performance, blockchain culture, and the Hawa Cat universe. She studied for her master’s degree at UNAM in Mexico City, at the Academia de San Carlos, and also studied in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She has spent time painting in Paris, and her work has been shown in museums and galleries and collected internationally.

Eve became a digital artist through the NFT and blockchain art world, where she saw new possibilities for artists to create, exhibit, and connect directly with collectors. She is also a speaker, curator, and innovator in Web3 and blockchain art. She has spoken at conferences, built and curated art exhibitions in the metaverse, created blockchain-based art projects, and continues to explore how new technology can expand contemporary art.

Her work combines fine art training, painterly experimentation, digital tools, and a lifelong drive to create images that have never existed before.

Links: EveHennessa.com ·

Spatial Galleries :

Tounge Rough Like Flint- Digital Contemporary Cat Art

SOFTER WORLD contemporary digital and glitch art

Click to see the PAINTINGS