ARTIST EXPLAINS FELINE INSPIRATION.Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer Political leanings had little to do with Michele Weston Relkin's gift to President Clinton's family in 1994. Soon after Chelsea Clinton's father was elected president in 1992, Relkin thought about how a 12-year-old girl would feel about leaving her friends and moving to Washington, D.C. ``I was watching all the news around the time of his inauguration, and I saw stories about Chelsea. I could tell she adored a·dore v. a·dored, a·dor·ing, a·dores v.tr. 1. To worship as God or a god. 2. To regard with deep, often rapturous love. See Synonyms at revere1. 3. her cat, Socks,'' said Relkin, a Newbury Park artist. ``I remembered how it felt to be 12 and what an awkward age it was. And then I thought about how hard it must be to be moving into the White House at that age. ``It also reminded me of what a comfort pets can be during stressful times. So I decided I wanted to give her a gift.'' Relkin painted Chelsea a portrait of the first cat, titled ``Socks in the Oval Office,'' and eventually sent it off to the White House. Relkin and five other artists were on hand Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs to talk about what inspired their presidential gifts and to demonstrate their techniques. Some, like Relkin, are professional artists. Others are inspired amateurs whose gifts ended up in the permanent collection at the National Archives National Archives, official depository for records of the U.S. federal government, established in 1934 by an act of Congress. Although displeasure concerning the method of keeping national records was voiced in Congress as early as 1810, the United States continued . The Reagan Library is featuring 200 such gifts in an exhibit titled ``Tokens and Treasures: Gifts to Twelve Presidents, Hoover through Clinton.'' For Relkin, painting a gift brought many happy returns, including trips to Washington, D.C., and front-page newspaper articles about her work. The whimsical whim·si·cal adj. 1. Determined by, arising from, or marked by whim or caprice. See Synonyms at arbitrary. 2. Erratic in behavior or degree of unpredictability: a whimsical personality. portrait shows Socks sitting behind the president's desk, with a pen in paw (tool) PAW - Physics Analysis Workbench. and a goldfish goldfish, freshwater fish, genus Carassius, of the family Cyprinidae, popular in aquariums and ponds. Native to China, it was first domesticated centuries ago from the wild form, an olive-colored carplike fish up to 16 in. (40 cm) long. bowl at his elbow. Although the painting now hangs in the Reagan Library, it will eventually return to the Clinton family. ``First Socks was here on loan. Then he was sent off to Chelsea, and then he was on loan for this exhibit,'' Relkin said. After the exhibit, the painting will be returned to the National Archives until Clinton opens his own presidential library in Arkansas, Relkin explained, and then it will be displayed there. ``They say a cat has nine lives. Well, this painting definitely has nine lives.'' Relkin also noted that ``Socks in the Oval Office'' marked the introduction of some fanciful fan·ci·ful adj. 1. Created in the fancy; unreal: a fanciful story. 2. Tending to indulge in fancy: a fanciful mind. 3. humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was into her sometimes somber work. ``My main body of work has been abstract mixed media, with a serious mood,'' Relkin said. ``But since Socks, animals have been creeping into my work, and my work sometimes has a more whimsical quality.'' Relkin displayed several feline-theme paintings and works on Saturday, and she talked about the challenges of depicting Socks. ``He was a tricky subject because he has this black splotch right next to his black nose,'' she said. ``I had to make sure that you could tell it was a splotch and not his nose.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Michele Weston Relkin paints in the courtyard Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Michael Owen
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