By Jack Krost

Pete and James Make Purrfect Art Together

This is the story of a beautiful partnership.
Once upon a time there was a struggling artist named James Dean. No, we're not talking about the 1950s movie star and American pop culture icon. This artist uses paint and brushes to create his images, although he's well on his way to becoming an Oakhurst icon. For years, James Dean made his living as an electrical engineer at the Georgia Power Company. It paid the bills but didn't satisfy the creative impulse struggling to be heard.

"I always knew in the back of my mind I wanted to draw and paint, I was just afraid to try to make a living out of it," Dean says. "But now, I like to tell people don't wait as long as I did."

Then, he began drawing and painting in his spare time, building on the one drawing course he took in college. Most of his early works were landscapes. Sometimes he did a few sketches before leaving for work in the morning. He began exhibiting. But it wasn't until he happened to paint Pete, his black cat, one day when Pete appeared to be sitting in a contemplative mood with his tail stretched to one side, that James' work took off. People responded to the "catness" in the work, and perhaps the empathy that Dean felt for his pet, which comes through in the paintings.

"I don't see cats as just fluffy, furry creatures. If you've had one, you know they have a certain attitude," Dean says.

Today, as you might notice at The Seen gallery on West Hill Street or at art festivals and the many other places where Dean exhibits his work, Pete the Cat paintings have become an institution.

A natural-looking Pete can be seen lounging, stretching, scratching and in all sorts of postures, in a laundry basket, on his favorite table, on top of a stairway, in a window, sitting on top of a Volkswagon Beetle and appearing in just about every other possible setting at Dean's house on West Benson Street. There's also a more cartoonish looking Pete, who gets around even more. This Pete has been in the "Creation of Adam" on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, in Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night," on the cover of Rolling Stone, on the City of Decatur logo, posing with Janis Joplin on a motorcyle, hanging out with Jabba the Hut of Star Wars fame, and flying a fighter jet alongside Snoopy, piloting his dog house in his role as the World War I flying ace.

"I just keep thinking of new Pete adventures," Dean says. "People enjoy Pete, and that makes me happy."

Although the real Pete was black, the pigment Pete is always blue. It's for a combination of artistic and marketing reasons. Dean wanted to work in a color besides black. "And I didn't know whether people would buy paintings of black cats, because they might think it's bad luck," he says.

But the blue coloration certainly is not a reflection of Pete's mood. If anything, he seems exuberant, as he moves from scene to scene in the various paintings.

James and Pete make the rounds of art festivals here in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia, such as Athens, where Dean worked as an engineer. For the next three months, dozens of Dean's works are appearing in a special exhibit at the Emory University Law School library.

But interest in Pete goes far beyond Georgia. It's worldwide. Dean recently received an e-mail from someone in France, asking for a rendition of Pete in a particular Degas painting. He received a telephone call from Australia, asking for a copy of his book, "Living with Cats (and the struggle to be an artist)," a book of illustrations that can also be purchased as The Seen. And his work has been exhibited at a gallery in York, England.

"I don't know how they heard about it. It blew my mind, when I started getting those calls from overseas," Dean says.

"I have no idea where it's going to lead," he adds. "But it's just fun getting up in the morning and figuring out what Pete is going to do today. Things happen to me that wind up in the paintings."

One unfortunate case in point, by the way, which you might notice at The Seen, is Pete getting a speeding ticket. Dean insists that it was such a rare and noteworthy event, it had to be captured on canvas.

Dean works from his home, with his living room serving as a studio, although the studio "has kind of grown and taken over the house." He's been living in Oakhurst for the past 3 1/2 years. He finds it a "wonderful place to be an artist. People here enjoy art and support the art scene."

Dean grew up in Alabama, one of three children. Creativity runs in the family. His father, a draftsman, painted for a hobby, and his brother paints as well. Dean believes he actually was named after the James Dean of movie fame, although by the time he grew up, his parents had become more conservative, and didn't like to admit it. He was born James Dean Thomas, but when he got into mischief as a youngster, his parents would sternly call him "James Dean" to admonish him. Several years ago, he legally changed his name to just James Dean. He began drawing in high school but felt compelled to be "practical" in college and graduated from Auburn University in 1982 with an engineering degree.

Pete was actually his second beloved cat. A first, named Slim, lived with Dean in Athens. A scrawny-looking Pete came along in 1999 from an animal shelter, after Dean had decided to stay at home and pursue art full time.

Although Pete has made his mark, sadly he's no longer part of the household. After living with Dean for nine months, Pete never came home one morning from his cat rounds. But there's still plenty of cat attitude in the Dean household. Dean has two cats these days, named Lizzie and, of course, Re-Pete.

The original Pete, however, still turns up in paintings. He's not hard to miss. The next time you're at an art gallery or festival, it's a good bet you'll spot a certain blue cat, getting around, as always, in many different settings.