This one-of-a-kind portrait of a cat by Brenda circa the 1950s

is part of a series of seven mugs that Brenda decorated in faces, except for one mug which is a leaf pattern and this cat face mug. The mugs are delicately cast. lip diameter 2 inches. body 3.5 inches tall and wide.

I speculate that this series was designed on commission. These mugs correspond with the time when the movie Carousel was filmed in Boothbay Harbor. During that time there were numerous actors and others associated with the filming came by my parent’s ceramic gallery to have their portraits painted by my mother on the ceramic forms usually designed by my Dad.

However, the only part of this rare mug form that resembles my father’s sensibilities is the handle and so I believe that this mug was created as a commission and the person commissioning the work dictated the design of the form.

The form is of a very delicate cast, The mugs are artifacts from a very different time when Weston and Brenda set up production as an art form with a mission to create handmade products affordable to the middle classes, at a time when the middle class was wide and dominant. Later Warhol made production an art form that made prestige art objects.

Brenda decorated pieces with the established patterns and she spontaneously created one-of-a-kind decorative work. One-of-a-kind works were not planned, they just happened, but to have the ability to successfully execute artwork with such freedom, one needs to have an innate control of the medium, which comes about through repetitive practice.