This is the only work ever done by the enigmatic and elusive Leery, and MoDA is proud to have secured it for our collection. On the acquisition form the artist gives his address as Neptune, describes himself as a recreational alchemist and/or explorational psychedelicist, and lists among his life's accomplishments the invention of the perpetual motion machine.

The papers that arrived in the packing crate with the painting were barely coherent, but the artist describes his inspiration in the following words: "Dropped 500µg blotter on the advice of Al Hoffman. Was waiting for heavy unreality when my cat Schrodinger either came into the room or didn't. As I watched he either consumed or did not consume a tab off the buttons left on the sheet. After a minute or so it began to hit him— imagine 500µg on a 15-pound cat! He began to shift reality, so I got out my sketchpad and started to follow him on his trip. Plan to finish in oils later."

"Panel One—Shows the normal Schrodinger, if cats can ever be described as normal. Just a pretty pussycat.

"Panel Two— Shows the paranoia that sometimes accompanies a first-time tripper. Began acting like narcs had the house surrounded.

"Panel Three— Getting a good buzz on now, sending out electrical aurae or auras, whichever it is. Desk lamp bulb blew, TV began edging out of the room to avoid contact and possible damage. Meows like static on an old radio.

"Panel Four— Wow! Suddenly went all Mandelbrot on me. Every part of him in infinite regression at the same time. I couldn't focus on any features but his eyes, and those were 'way strange, man! Meows now like strong wind through Goblin Valley in Utah. (Been there, bad trip as goblins came alive and chased me out of park.)

"Panel Five— Wheeeeoh! Turned into Comic Book Cat. Something like Alice's Cheshire, if Cheshire caught in exploding crayon factory. Grin went from angelic to evil, sometimes both at once. Very Gnostic.

"Panel Six— Sort of a cross between Mandelbrot and Mexican Day of the Dead mask. Meowing like heavenly chorus on steroids.

"Panel Seven— Tibetan mandala phase. Thirteen-HzOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWWWWW

nearly blew out the windows. Armchair in room fell over dead of fright, stair carpeting fled up to third floor shedding carpet tacks everywhere. Memo to self: Buy steel-soled carpet slippers.

"Panel Eight— Grand finale. This medium can't show billions of color shifts and pattern changes every second. Schrodinger eventually went off in a pinkish-purple helium flash, the meow of which echoed for hours. Or maybe he didn't. My attention distracted by legs melting and flowing out under street door. House getting smaller and smaller no matter how hard my ears push back. Time for a handful of downers. Signing off."

 

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MoDA acknowledges Leery's debt to Louis Wain, the late schizophrenic cat painter, whose works are luckily in the public domain or MoDA would have gotten its ass sued off. For more on Wain's fascinating artwork, see this.

 

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