new and beautiful: a coin to a cat

Chris Hagebak, copyright, 2007.

I happened to be surfing DeviantART Saturday as I often like to do when I stopped short at this work. The simplicity of this image, the rich texture of the background, and the perfection of the cat's form appealed to me. And the title? A Coin to a Cat? Sounded familiar.

It WAS. According to Chris Hagebak, the artist, "The traditional Japanese saying "A coin to a cat" is similar to the English 'Pearls before swine' - it means basically that one shouldn't waste their gifts on those who don't appreciate them. It doesn't have any particular significance here - I just like to add old Japanese sayings to my Asian work." That's right, I'd listed that in an earlier post on cat proverbs. That richly mottled background is stained with coffee, and marks part of a short series portraying Asian-themed cats and mice - check out his sumi-e Kanji Mice.

Chris' profile on DeviantART is called RamonaQ, and here's his website.