Pet: Cat
My name is Mona Luo. I am an art major who has always had a strong interest in biology, particularly animals. This interest has been manifesting itself in my work more and more after taking a class called Animal Architecture (a research based seminar examining various structures built by animals) this past fall. Recently I have been focusing on the medium of book arts and hope to make a series about various biological concepts and zoological phenomenon. The first (and currently only) book in the series was based around the various kinds of nests that wasps build. Although I consider myself to be quite scientifically-minded, I would like to use this class as an opportunity to expand my outlook and explore new approaches.
I’ve always been an animal lover, but I have a particular fondness for cats. Although it may just be my imagination, I’ve always felt that I’ve been good at understanding and being sympathetic towards them. I do not remember a time in my life when I did not have cats around me. My family adopted a cat when I was about one and a half years old who later gave birth to a litter of kittens. The mother ran away from home, but we kept one of the kittens and he grew up alongside me. He was with us for 15 years until he passed away. Now we have no cats of our own, but there are many strays and outdoor cats the roam the mountain that we live on. I’ve found their interactions with each other especially perplexing and fascinating. It’s been like watching a soap opera, but every character is a cat! Our current regulars are a Gomi, our neighbor’s cat that we took in, and HuangMao, a very old, tough-looking orange alley cat. Unfortunately, around school, cats are few and far between.