Cat # 37 * Cat # 39
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2021 Cat’N Around Catskill – Cat #38
“The Owl and the Pussycat” by Margot K. Higgins
Visit this Ambassador Cat and all the “What a Hoot” Coxsackie Owls in the town of Coxsackie
Sponsored by: Coxsackie’s Hoot of the Owl Committee
Description: I am always inspired by children’s book illustrations and animals. I wanted to create a whimsical cat and was inspired by the poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear. The whole design is painted with acrylic paints, as were my earlier statues.
About the Artist: Margot K. Higgins was born in Staten Island, NY where she still resides. She also spent most of her summers in the Catskills and has now been living with her two teenage daughters in Kerhonkson, NY since March 2020.
Margot received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts as an Illustration Major graduating in the top 10%. Following this, the artist went on to exhibit her work in several places throughout New York City including the Society of Illustrators 9/11 exhibit. She has received many awards as well as a summer scholarship for her art. Ms. Higgins was also a member and officer for the SI Artist Federation for several years, where she exhibited and designed their brochures. Throughout the years, she took many pastel, drawing, and computer graphics classes in Staten Island, Brooklyn, NYC
and Woodstock, NY.
Margot worked as a Montessori and art teacher for several years. Working as a freelance artist and calligrapher, she was also a graphic designer for Homes & Land magazine. Currently, she is working remotely as a colored pencil art teacher for Art Lab in Staten Island.
Ms. Higgins works in a variety of different mediums including pastels, acrylics, and oil paints. In November 2020, she started her own successful Etsy shop, found at graspingatpencils.etsy.com, where she draws with colored pencils both on natural wood slices for customers to hang up wherever they’d like, as well as in creating her iconic Artist Trading Cards.
Among Margot’s many artistic accomplishments, she is most proud of painting a fiberglass statue titled “The Patriot Bear” for the Staten Island Savings Foundation event in 2008 known as “Lions, Tigers and Bears…SI”, as well as being chosen to paint yet another statue: one of 13 from the 2018 event, “Reflections SI”, which was a 5’5” tall sea turtle. She has since dubbed him as the “Turtle Named Richmond” and remains proud of his paint job, which includes her lovingly painted and delicately detailed depictions of different Staten Island Richmond County locations on his shell. Margot always loves to create art in new ways and would be honored to get an opportunity to paint one of the famous “Cat’n Around Catskill” cats.
Instagram: @mkhigs_ , @graspingatpencils, #turtlenamedrichmond
Facebook: Grasping at Pencils
Shop: graspingatpencils.etsy.com