HOW SQUISHEE THE ALLEYCAT FOUND FAME IN A CITY THAT VALUES STREET ART
W
ho doesn’t love a good cat story and who doesn’t admire a city where good street art is encouraged and promoted?
Papaioea Palmerston North can boast some great street art thanks to local muralists documenting its stories on city walls. One of those artists is SwiftMantis whose huge portrait of Squishee his cat, graces a wall high above a carpark. It's another good reason to pay a visit to Palmerston North. When asked to take part in the Street Prints – Papaioea Street Art Festival, he decided to tell his cat’s story.
A little cat with the ego of a Lion SwiftMantis found the small feral cat living under the studio he was working in at the time. He says it took months to earn her trust but she just kept hanging round, eventually moving from the junkyard to the doorway, then inside the building until finally being taken home to live with them. “She’s like all of us. We all came from somewhere else to find our forever home.” Having Squishee join the whanau sparked a real interest for SwiftMantis in other stray cats and their stories.
Clockwise from top: Portrait of Squishee; SwiftMantis at work (photo Tracie Angel); a SwiftMantis mural graces the walls of Carncot Independent School. Next page: clockwise from top: Squishee, a little cat with the ego of a Lion; Hangar, Whanganui Airport’s resident cat hitches a ride. Hangar immortalised on St Hill Street (photo Bevan Conley). Photos provided by SwiftMantis.
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