Celebrity artists like Urzila Carlson and Tom Sainsbury rub shoulders with the professionals in the cat-alogue of an auction set up to raise funds for Pet Refuge.

Tom Sainsbury used his social media cat character Gingerbread as inspiration. Experimental musician Campbell Kneale (aka Catman) blasted Australian death metal and painted a wired cat with black eyes. Jo White created a water colour inspired by an upside-down iPhone selfie taken by her Maine Coon. Movie critic Kate Rodger gave her cat a Star Wars-inspired robe and lightsaber.

Inspiration has come from a variety of sources at Caroline Moore’s cat art auction, which is running until the end of the month and has something for everyone, including paintings, watercolours, stone carvings, cross stitches and photographs, all with a distinctly feline feel. All proceeds go towards Pet Refuge, an animal shelter providing safe, temporary housing for pets owned by those fleeing domestic abuse situations.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” says Moore, the owner of the online cat store Fang & Fur, who coughed the idea up like a furball during lockdown last year. It’s since snowballed, with more than 40 artists and celebrities agreeing to donate works to be auctioned. “It’s evolved into this great big event,” she says.

While some works are fun, like Eliza Guerrero’s portrait of Mimo staring longingly at two goldfish, others are more serious. Comedian Urzlia Carlson painted her cat Raven, who died nine years ago and liked to watch the world pass by from the window. Michelle Yandle painted her cat called Freddie Purrcury because, she says, black cats are “often the last to get adopted”. 

Yvonne Todd, a photographer known for the 2006 work Goat Sluice, supplied a rare polaroid outtake from that shoot that Moore believes will be among the most popular auctions. It already has a bid of $465 but could go much higher. “She’s known for doing these photos that feel a little unnerving and a little bit supernatural,” says Moore. “She’s printed it just for the auction. It has the potential to go off.”

One artist in particular has a personal connection to the cause. “Growing up in a family with domestic violence, we often spent time in the Women’s Refuge, but always went back home, and one reason was that our pets were still there,” says photographer Hayley Theyers, who contributed a stunning portrait of a fluffy white cat turning away from the camera. “Had there been a Pet Refuge things might perhaps have been different.”

Pet Refuge founder Julie Chapman is grateful for the support and says they need all the help they can get. Since it opened in 2018, the refuge has helped 165 pets and families escape abuse, with 115 being returned to their owners. “Animal abuse is a tool used by abusers to assert and maintain power over victims,” she says. “The prevalence of this type of abuse has only risen.”

A live cat art auction is being held on August 28 at Everybody’s in Auckland, with silent and live auctions taking place, allowing final bids to take place. Moore says she hopes to raise more than $6,000 towards the cause. “It’s a real hindrance to women escaping violence,” she says. “Threats of hurting the animal can be used as a weapon. It’s so great to be helping animals and their people.”

View the cat-alogue and bid on your favourite cat art here, and register for the live auction event here.