CicloSDias Minis
Casey Weldon's By the Scruff Within every human is a little bit of animal. It’s evident in how we care for our children, react to danger or sniff out cookies baking somewhere far away.
Our beastly qualities will be explored at The Animal in Me, a group exhibition featuring members of PRISMA, an international collective made up of 30 artists.
One of the artists whose work will be on view is Casey Weldon, whose piece “By the Scruff” features a woman carrying a small version of herself the same way animals carry their young.
“I’m kind of obsessed with painting cats,” Weldon says via phone from his home in Seattle. “So I decided to get animalistic without using any animals. I liked the idea of showing a human holding its young by the scruff of the neck. I thought it would either turn out really gross or really goofy or a little weird. ”
Part of the artist’s inspiration came from his affinity for the cat meme website I Can Haz Cheeseburger. He decided to take a bit of that lowbrow humor and inject it with some sophistication. The result is an oddly fascinating, tongue-in-cheek look into animal and human nature.
Weldon’s piece will be on view along with works by PRISMA founder Kaspian Shore, Kelly Vivanco, Tom Bagshaw and 23 other artists, from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, at Subtext Gallery (2479 Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy).
Alex Zaragoza writes about art and culture for CityBeat. Contact her at alexz@sdcitybeat.com.
