Dasha Tanquerae Guliak

“you'll never find a husband with all those cats"

This set of paintings are of my eight cats in our home. They are intimate snapshots of my home and all the creatures that inhabit it. The works serve as a direct counter to comments I have received from people in my real life and on social media, largely from men, who suggest that my other-mothering of cats is incompatible with heteronormative, conjugal family life defined through the idealized nuclear family. Apart from the assumption of heteronormativity, these commentators also suggest that I am less valuable (socially, sexually) due to my relationship with cats. While the legal term of “spinster” fell out of acceptable use during the twentieth century, the social framing of women as “crazy cat ladies” offers a way to other and marginalize women who own cats by suggesting they are physically unattractive, mentally unstable, and maternal failures. In contrast, my paintings, as a direct reflection of my life, invoke images of stability, warmth, and radical motherhood.

~Mentor: Robin Adair, CAAP Instructor

Dasha Guliak recently completed her PhD in History and is currently pursing graduate studies with USask’s Gender Studies Department to explore the women-cat kinship on the prairies. She has pursued studying art, specifically water colours, for the past 5 years. Her art draws inspiration from her interest in history, home, and women’s liberation.