A cat-obsessed musician has dedicated a Tumblr site to re-imagined iconic album artwork featuring kittens in place of the musicians.
Created by Alfra Martini, a digital artist from Brooklyn, New York, the site, named The Kitten Covers, came to be after she gave David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane a feline flavor.
Replacing people and objects with cats, her fun take on the album covers also bears an impressive resemblance to the originals, matching hair color and facial expressions wherever possible.
Transformation: Digital artist Alfra Martini has created a Tumblr account The Kitten Covers, dedicated to iconic album artwork re-imagined with cats
Music fan: After transforming David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, Martini moved onto Nirvana’s Nevermind
Yawn: Pet Shop Boys were also given a kitty makeover
Viral: The creator revealed that her boyfriend encouraged her to set up the Tumblr account but she never imagined it would go viral
Speaking to Humor in America, Martini revealed that the idea for The Kitten Covers came to her after a vision of David Bowie as a kitten popped into her head when she was home sick from work one day, recuperating from a cold.
She explained: ‘I don’t know how or why. Perhaps it’s because I’m a huge Bowie fan and have an Aladdin Sane tote bag I use and see everyday – or perhaps it was because my little calico cat was sleeping at my feet, as she usually does when I’m in bed – or maybe it was the Theraflu – but it was a very clear image and the thought made me laugh.
‘The die was cast. I had to see it in real life.’
Rock royalty: British rock band Queen have also been featured
Rare breed: Madonna’s self-titled album has been transformed courtesy of a white Persian cat
Inventive: A hairless Sphynx cat was used to depict Sinead O’Connor
Retro: The American popstar of the 1960s Little Richard also features
After completing the Bowie cover art, Martini said she started thinking of other album covers she could mimic and decided to try Nirvana’s Nevermind.
As co-founder of the independent record label All Hands Electric and a member of a pop band named Virginia Plain, Martini has put her eclectic music knowledge to good use and has since transformed dozens of album covers.
For Madonna’s self-titled 1983 album, a white Persian kitten can be seen clutching the sides of its face, mimicking Madonna’s pose to perfection.
Sinead O’Connor is depicted as a hairless Sphynx cat for Martini’s take on her 1990 album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.
Iconic: Grace Jones also features on The Kitten Covers
Heavy metal: Iron Maiden’s self-titled album has also been given a makeover on the Tumblr site
What’s love got to do with it: Tina Turner’s Private Dancer has also been transformed
Baby got back: For The Strokes’ Is This It, a cat can be seen with a large leather glove petting its back
And for Pet Shop Boys, Actually, one of kittens in matching tuxedos managed to let out an almost identical yawn to the one Neil Tennant did on the 1987 album cover.
Martini’s boyfriend, Zachary Cale, suggested she should start a Tumblr page, but the artist admits that she never foresaw her work going viral.
‘I had no idea how popular these would get. So it did freak me out big time when they went viral. First I just kept waiting for cease and desist notices from the record labels,’ she revealed.
The artist then got frustrated when others would use her work without crediting her, but feels that she has learned more about the inner workings of the online world through managing the project.