Sara
Cats can act as our therapists too.
If you’ve adopted a pet, you know they are a huge source of emotional support to you. Your feline friend will be there to celebrate your happy days with you and provide you with comfort whenever you’re feeling low. Did you know a cat’s purring can actually relax your muscles and help you become stress-free? I’m not making that up, that is actually a fact. Even though cats can be really arrogant and indifferent at times, they still care about us. They can sense our negative energies when we are upset and they will cuddle with us so we can feel better. They aren’t heartless at all. They are just cute little furballs full of love.
A UK-based artist named Hector Janse van Rensburg creates watercolour paintings of his cat giving mental health advice. And trust me, it is going to be the best thing you’ll see today. Scroll down below to see some of his work:
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via: swatercolour
1. Solving problems one at a time.
2. Grateful for our lives.
3. You can always be fixed.
Hector spoke about this series to Bored Panda:
“The comics that came before this series were less optimistic, and this series is a bit like a response to that. They sometimes approach difficult issues like mental health, but the aim of the comics is not to solve the issues but to show a different perspective on them. That new perspective often comes from the cat, who is based on my cat Ona who passed away a few years ago.”
4. Doing half a thing is a big deal too.
5. Nothing stays the same.
6. Ambitions.
He spoke about his journey towards art:
“Before I started painting online about 8 years ago, I had never had any interest in art and now it looks like that’s where my life is going. Ostensibly, that just means I’m sitting at my desk with a brush more often than a keyboard, but it is a whole different type of challenge to think of things about human nature that I want to communicate in my paintings.”
7. Know your place.
8. Finding the “why”s
9. It’ll come again.
10. You’re not a burden.
Hector spoke about expressing himself through his art:
“It’s like I’m living through my art, which can be difficult.”
11. No compromise.
12. Step by step, you’ll reach there.
13. Always time for you.
Hector gave advice on motivation and passion:
“I think if you rely on some feeling of passion to motivate you then you will have a hard time. I’ve been doing a comic every day recently and I tend to wake up, think of an idea, and then have it painted by lunchtime.
The schedule around my painting process is quite robotic by now, and I think doing it that way opens up a clear space where you can be more creatively free. If I didn’t have a schedule and instead waited around for inspiration that was good enough to motivate me to paint, then I probably wouldn’t be as productive.”
14. Don’t ever change the positive side of you.
15. Relax.
16. The sadness won’t last.
He focuses on the positive things in life.
“So I think about the ways in which people can feel bad and how you might approach them as a friend would. I don’t think I find it too difficult to think of ideas which is probably a testament to how nice my cat was.”
17. Be ready for surprises.
18. Going in circles isn’t always bad.
19. Enjoy it while it lasts.
20. It’s a new day!
Hector’s style is definitely something you don’t see every day. And we could all use some positivity in our lives. He says:
“For me, it’s that the niceness and technical ability of a painting are different things and you can aim at either.”
“It’s perfectly possible to make happy little wobbly blobs of color and people will enjoy them if the message is good and sincere. There’s probably a boundary of neatness that you should stay within but messiness is cool too.
Also, most of my pictures look very bad at first, and then it’s only after a while that they come together. I think that’s because a few wobbly blobs on their own look like an accident, but a finished painting of wobbly blobs looks purposeful.”
What do you think of these adorable comics? Let us know in the comics below!