About Us
'Art for the moderately crazy cat lover'
The Dancing Cat features the modern and distinct cat art of Rhode Island School of Design graduate Jamie Shelman. Founded in 2008 (while living between NYC and Martha's Vineyard), our shop seeks to capture and share our love of fat cats and good design. Inspired by their fat plump shapes and seal like bodies, we've found cats to be the perfect form of self expression. From cats doing 'cat things' to more human activities, our art hopes to capture & stir the same love and passion for cats & art that you experience, often in a whimsical or unique manner. We hope you can recognize your cat, or yourself in our pictures! :D
Browse by collection now>> or learn more about us below.
More About:
- Created from our studio in Baltimore MD, every object is treated like a work of art, handled with love and care from design to finish.
- You can find our cards in shops worldwide including Paper Source, Whole Foods, Urban Outfitters and more! Check your local Cat Cafe, we try to connect with cat lovers worldwide who share a similar passion for cats, coffee and cycling.
- Our shop originally started on Etsy, a place where you can still shop and find our goods today! Shop The Dancing Cat on Etsy now.
- We've been published! Clients include American Greetings, Chronicle Books, Papyrus, Spirituality & Health Magazine and more! And look for our book, 'Life Lessons I've Learned from My Cat'.
- The Dancing Cat is a husband and wife team. Jamie & Tom met while studying at The Rhode Island School of Design. Jamie creates the cats and Tom assists with packaging and heads the sanity department. View Tom's Art here.
- psst The origin of our shop name, The Dancing Cat, comes from drawing dancing cats while listening to classical music on the Vineyard.
- We believe in handmade, all works are originally drawn by hand then scanned onto the computer and digitally colored. There is a life force and energy that can still only be captured by hand!
- Formerly our neighbor's cat & now our permanent resident and art inspector, Brooksy, serves as the local muse. He enjoys belly rubs and ham and will charm you with his superman pose when feelin' hungry ;D
'Big Prince'
Links:
We'd love to hear from you!
Studiomate and art inspector, Girth Brooksy aka Big Prince
More about Jamie:
Jamie grew up in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to her degree from The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Painting, Jamie studied at The Sydney College of Arts in Sydney Australia, Bucknell University, The University of Arizona, and RISD's Summer abroad program in Rome Italy. She was the Co-creator and teacher for 3 years at Pikaland Bootcamp, an online art school hosted by the illustration blog Pikaland, where she designed and taught sold out art classes aimed at developing and discovering one's artistic voice. Before creating her whimsical cat drawings she painted large abstract oil paintings and was the recipient of an Ox-Bow Residency on the shores of Lake Michigan. After living several yrs between Martha's Vineyard and NYC she currently creates and designs from her studio in Roland Park, Baltimore MD where the cats are fat & simple :D