Whats New with the Creole Cat

SECTION: LIVING; Pg. E1

COOL KITTY; CREATURE OF LOCAL ARTIST'S IMAGINATION PROWLS THE TOWN'S LANDMARKS by ANGUS LIND

Cats and stats -- that's what the world of Chamain DiPascal O'Mahony is all about.

But they have nothing to do with each other. The stats are the serious side of her life: By day, the 37-year-old Marrero native is Stat Lady, the director of research for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. That agency is all about research, statistics, logistics and surveys, and O'Mahony, who holds a bachelor of science degree and a master of business administration degree and is a certified public accountant, is a big part of a very big organization.

By night, she is Cat Lady, her mind roaming the streets of New Orleans, a late-blooming artist with a runaway imagination and the creator of Creole Cat. Creole Cat is a whimsical and adventurous feline brought to life by O'Mahony's brush strokes. The story line says that Creole Cat was born under the awning of Caf e du Monde on Mardi Gras and weaned from mama's milk to caf e au lait when she was just a petit minou.

"Minou is so New Orleans," said O'Mahony. "I grew up calling all cats minou, like a lot of local people do. It's one of these funny little terms we say here, like cayoodle for a dog. A Cajun dictionary at the Arcadian Bookstore in the French Quarter said that it is a term of endearment for a cat.

"Every time I say something like that in D.C., I get these strange looks," she said. "Like when I say I have to get my grip. They'll say, 'What?' And I'll say, you know, my grip, my suitcase." Grip is something she says fairly frequently because she commutes to Washington from her home in New Orleans, where she lives with her husband, Sean.

Creole Cat goes to a lot of different spots around the city (on canvas, of course). And true to the nine lives cats are said to have, she takes on lots of different personas. So, not surprisingly, we find Marie Minou in a cemetery, looking amazingly like she is in front of the tomb of Marie Laveau (or in this case, Marie Minou).

And then there is StreetCat Named Desire, getting on board the Desire streetcar with a Krauss bag. The department store was a fond memory for O'Mahony. She went there as a girl with her dearest relatives and loved the idea of visiting "Notions" for buttons and thread as well as "Foundations" for lingerie.

"Again, if I'm in D.C., and I say something about foundations -- isn't that a funny word? -- they look at me like I'm crazy," she said. "I'm just still thinking Krauss -- that's the way I grew up."

Then there's Cat Tuesday in the middle of a parade scene, Cats Domino standing on top of a piano stool banging on the ivories, Cat O'Brien's hanging out on St. Peter Street, first in front of the famous watering hole and then playing a sax in front of, ahem, Purrservation Hall.

O'Mahony's art is, well, she says it best: "I love everything colorful and distorted. Nothing's ever rigid -- that's this city." A city, it should be added, that she and her husband love dearly. "I got so homesick living up there" in D.C., she said. So her boss, Tom Donohue, the Chamber president, worked it out so she could commute every couple of weeks.

"Most everything I do is on the phone or on the computer," she said. "I thank my lucky stars and say my prayers every night. The president is one of my biggest supporters. He's the one who said, yes, we can make it work."

So now, back home, O'Mahony and her husband love to go to restaurants like Sid-Mar's and Rocky and Carlo's and check out future visits for Creole Cat. "We run around to every old funky place," she said. Her husband, from Atlanta, is as attached to New Orleans as she is. "He couldn't wait to get here; this is his spot."

Although her sister is a professional artist in Boston and her dad a woodworker, O'Mahony's history as an artist is a brief one. About 12 years ago she took a watercolor class, but really only dabbled. At Christmas last year, she painted in acrylics the portraits of her grandmother and aunt, known as "Gra-Gra" and "Tin-Tin."

She also painted some old New Orleans scenery and then her nephew wanted her to do a painting of her cats. O'Mahony owns two, Little One and Sideways. That's where the seed was planted -- New Orleans scenery with a cat. Sideways is pretty feral, so Little One became the model for Creole Cat. And a second career began.

At night Little One sits on the coffee table next to O'Mahony's easel and stares at her while she paints her cats that now appear in galleries all over the city: Bergen Galleries in the French Quarter, Riverbend Gallery on South Carrollton, Feltman's on West Metairie Avenue, and Roux Gallery at Jazzland.

Some other versions of Creole Cat (which can also be found as note cards, prints and children's coloring sheets) include Second Feline Parade, Paw Reader (instead of palm reader, as you find at Jackson Square), Kitty that Care Forgot, Pirate's Alley Cat, French MarCat, Lucky Cat (in front of a Lucky Cat hot dog stand) and Cat in Heat, featuring Creole Cat eating a mess of boiled crawfish and corn that is piled on top of a -- gasp! -- Times-Picayune.

In the works is Creole Cat as chef Emeril, titled "Bam! Kitten it up a notch!"

"There's so much I want her to do," said O'Mahony, speaking as if her canvas cat is alive. "She needs to venture out of the city but there's so much to see and do here. She hasn't even really left downtown. One day soon she might go Uptown, though, maybe to Camellia Grill."

Hmmm. StreetCat Named Desire transfers to the St. Charles line to get to Catmellia Grill?

- - - - - -

Chamain O'Mahony can be reached through her Web site, www.thecreolecat.com.

GRAPHIC: By day, Chamain DiPascal O'Mahony is director of research for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by night, she is the creator of Creole Cat, whose arty personas include Cat in Heat, below, sampling spicy crawfish, and StreetCat Named Desire, below left. Creole Cat, the creation of artist Chamain DiPascal O'Mahony, was born under the awning of Cafe du Monde on Mardi Gras and still likes to hang out there to sip cafe au lait. STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANDERSON