Strays T-Shirt

I heard the pleas of a dying, itty bitty kitty hiding behind a tire on cold blacktop. I picked her up and offered her some milk. She couldn't eat or even stand. Her lower lip was tore off. I was not gonna let her die cold and alone. I kept her warm and in my lap. She started convulsing at one point and new it was near the end. I held waiting for her to pass away. But she didn't. She slept a lot. When she awoke she took some milk and began eating. I kept her in my vest as she got better. She went everywhere with me. I even slept with her, constantly checking to see if she was alive. I gave her a bath when she was strong enough. I decided to call her Itty Bitty. After a few days of holding steady she wasn't getting any better. An animal hospital kindly offered to perform free surgery on her lip and to help her get better. They saved her. They unkindly would not let me have her back. I never saw her again but she survived a rough beginning to life. She lives!

Arthur Barnes is a artist who works in a variety of mediums including ink, watercolor, pastels and oils. He prefers to work directly from life and his favorite subjects are landscapes with an emphasis on nocturnes and scenes of the Erie Canal. Arthur has had little formal training but was fortunate to study a year under Juanita Greene Parks in 1982. She had studied under Reginald Marsh and Robert Brackman. Brackman was a student of Ashcan artist/ teacher Robert Henri. Since that time, Arthur has been on a consistent course of self-training in art with an emphasis on learning through experience much like the Ashcan artists. "You learn to draw. . .by drawing," his teacher often recited. Artists Statement on Nocturnes "Half of our...