Sebastian Black

Most mornings I wake up first. I put on the radio, feed the cats, make coffee and then, maybe because we live in a studio, get right back into bed. Sometimes after they eat, the cats come and sit with me and India while we sip our drinks and stare at our phones. The cats look at us, or they doze, and we flick at one or another of the never-ending spools of thread which seem to re-wind themselves in our inattention.

Eventually I get back up and start the day in earnest. The girl cat follows me around crying until I play with her with this piece of neon ribbon left over from I don’t know where. The boy cat rarely moves from the nest of duvet India makes for him on her lap. I bought a thermal camera that attaches to my phone to take pictures of the girl cat while she bugs me and some of these paintings are based on those photos.

Eventually I take a shower and sometimes India comes and sits and talks to me about this and that. Sometimes we talk about ideas for something one of us is working on and sometimes we just talk nonsense. Usually one of the cats waits just outside the bathroom door. Afterwards we ride the steam back into a world which has grown colder by ten degrees. I get dressed quickly and India is at her desk in front of the computer. In the meantime the spools have wound themselves up again and outside there’s the weather.