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
Want to know more about the cat in literature, art and history? Then Revered and Reviled is the book for you. Now available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats.
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