Feline Frenzy

Author/Artist Name

Alissa N. Redding, Murray State UniversityFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Fall 10-31-2025

Artist Statement

Growing up, board games were the backbone of my childhood, it was a dry comfort during rainy days, and a refuge during frigid ice storms with nothing to keep out the chill but a roaring fireplace and warmer company to grip tight to. Feline Frenzy is a love letter to the days when it was just family and friends around a table, laughing and bickering in the way only people closest to us can.

Feline Frenzy is a completely new creative way to play, with a board that is customizable and cat-themed cards and pieces to get you to the most important end of all: the food bowl. From the lazy and chaos-loving cats, to the more toned-down and comfortable color palette in the form of fun colors, everything is structured to create a game that can be played again and again.

I chose to take two routes for the illustration of the game. The cards are the main focal point of play, they have bolder outlines and more unique colors, every card is a character of it’s own, the illustrations communicate that. The font of the cards create an oxymoronic sensibility, a serious face to a silly game. The illustrations of the cards are centered to become focal points. The board has no outlines at all save for the track so that the biggest focus could be seeing where players are going next. Additionally, the board is also irregularly shaped to pay homage to Tetris. This makes building the board an interactive step in getting the game ready to play. There may be a beginning and an end, but how you get there is completely up to you.

When I was drawing the illustrations for Feline Frenzy, I wanted the focus to stay on the fun of the game, and draw into a style that is meant to be interesting and familiar. I have a special love for games like Candy Land and Uno and I’ve chosen to translate that love of addictive simplicity into a completely new kind of game. Inspirations came from Dexter’s Laboratory and the illustrative works of Jean Jullien. Feline Frenzy is a brand-new game, but in style and design it feels familiar. The descriptions of each silly cat are pulled from my own love of cats, how I believe that they’re secretly wanting to take over the world like Todd, or playing the card of a perfect little angel like Donna, these cats each have their own personalities.

Advisor/Mentor

Jim Bryant; Gregory Scott Cook; Jeanne Beaver; Lu Colby

Description

This work includes the pieces and advertisements for a completely fictional game centered around silly cats and their goofy shenanigans. The gameplay is entirely new for a board game, with sections of the board you can rearrange and move however you wish. Everything was mounted, painted, or assembled with my own hands, from the colorful game box to the cat-head shaped pieces, to even the carefully cut and stapled rule book. My goal in creating this game was to make a nostalgic place for people to come and play this game with their own friends or family. It's an echo to my own memories of growing up around board games and cats, and in a way, I wanted to give those memories new life in an exhibition space I could be proud of.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Redding, Alissa N., "Feline Frenzy" (2025). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 155.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/155