Svetlana Petrova (… to present, Russian) lives in St. Petersburg and produces copies of famous classic paintings that include her fat cat, Zarathustra. Her eight year old orange tabby has become an art sensation.
Petrova graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg State University where she became interested in costume design and the performance arts. She founded the theatre group LEM which toured Europe. In the early 2000’s, she became the director of the International Festival of Animation Arts. The festival features an annual “Cats and the City” animation and fictional film competition.
In 2008, Petrova’s mother died and left her Zarathustra. A friend suggested that she make art with the cat because it would be funny. Petrova soon found that Zarathustra liked posing and especially lying on his back and making funny faces. She began to take photographs of the plump kitty and inserted them into paintings. After seeing his pose, Petrova then tries to imagine what painting he can fit into. Zarathustra has become an internet sensation.
Petrova has published a book Fat Cat Art: Famous Masterpieces Improved by a Ginger Cat with Attitude and has a Facebook page where you can see more of her paintings.

Fat Cat based on Shepard Fairey’s Hope

Grant Wood’s American Gothic with Fat Cat

Fat Cat in The Scream

Fat Cat Salvador Dali

Fat Cat Venus

Fat Cat with Girl with a Pearl Earring

Fat Cat with Mona Lisa

Fat Cat with Napoleon

Fat Cat with a Russian Woman

Portrait of Catherine II the Legislator in the Temple Devoted to the Cat, based on Dmitry Levitsky

Whistler’s Mother and Fat Cat

Venus of Urbino happily ever after, based on Titian
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