Booder Barnes & Bob Thompson: Scruffy City Kitties

June 6 – July 3, 2025
Booder Barnes & Bob Thompson: Scruffy City Kitties
Opening reception: Friday, June 6, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Mon-Fri 9-5; closed Thu Jun 19 and Fri Jul 4 for the holidays. Additional hours: Sat Jun 21, 10 AM – 2 PM (Make Music Knoxville).

The idea for Scruffy City Kitties evolved over the past couple years. I was studying some of my cat templates for previous murals I painted and thought I would like to see a show with a community of cats in their daily meanderings. I thought of the 2016 film entitled “Kedi” about the cats of Istanbul and how they lived in a city where they roamed freely, owned by no one, yet were left shelter and food by a wide range of businesses and families in the community. In 2017, local artist Bob Thompson and I collaborated on work for the show “Welcome to Heresville” in the A1 Gallery at Emory Place, and its theme was “a community of ideas.” So, it was logical to see if he might want to work together again for a “community of cats” exhibition. While I recovered from ankle surgery in 2022, Bob visited over the course of several days and listened to the notes I made for cat designs, cat construction, and catmosphere. It took me a year to cut 29 cats out of fiberboard. Bob primed and painted cat coats on the fiberboard; we later used found objects for eyes as well as came up with names for each kedi. So now, welcome to Scruvvi Citi Kediz!

About Booder Barnes: After high school, Barnes attended college at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, University of Tennessee at Martin, and Murray State in Kentucky. He studied painting with folk artist Larry Zingale in Warwick, New York. In 1996, Barnes moved to Knoxville and took classes with Betsy Worden and Annamaria Gundlach at the Candy Factory and Fine Arts Center. For many years, he was a board member of the non-profit organizations A1LabArts He also made numerous short films with his friend and mentor, Norman Magden.

About Bob Thompson: A life-long cat person, Bob became friends with Booder through A1LabArts and is glad to have helped, even in relatively small ways, bring Booder’s visions to reality.