Artist: Melissa Tshikamba
Title: Spiritual protector
Medium: Oil
Artist Statement: In this painting, the cat represents a spiritual protector of the home, watchful over both the visible and the unseen. Sacred to the protective goddess Bastet in ancient Egypt, cats later became associated with women and witchcraft in parts of Europe. I’m drawn to this connection between cats and femininity, and how both have been honored as sacred, then later demonized and treated with suspicion. Through this work, I celebrate the cat as a guardian and a symbol of intuition, independence, and sacred protection.