Pete the Cat crosses into the fine art world in a Sotheby's-inspired illustration by creator James Dean. (Courtesy of James Dean)
As “Pete the Cat” takes the stage at Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts, the character’s creator, James Dean, is thinking less about spectacle and more about the quieter rhythms that shape a creative life.
From fine art parody to children’s icon
Pete the Cat entered James Dean’s creative world in the late 1990s as a bright blue character in minimalist portraits. The cat soon appeared in Dean’s parodies of masterpieces and alongside vintage cars, guitars and vacation scenes.
The character became a children’s book phenomenon in 2008 with “Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes,” written by Eric Litwin. After self-publishing, HarperCollins picked up the series in 2010. Dean’s wife, Kimberly Dean, joined as a writer in 2013 with “Pete the Cat and the Magic Sunglasses,” expanding Pete’s world with quirky supporting characters.
The books spawned an animated Amazon Prime series in 2017, featuring voices including Jessica Biel, Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews and Jacob Tremblay as Pete. The show now has two seasons and multiple holiday specials.
Quiet mornings and the long arc of making
Dean describes his mornings as intentionally quiet. No music. No background noise. Just coffee, a paintbrush and time to imagine. It’s a routine that allows him to stay inside his own head before the day’s distractions take over.
That quiet, he says, isn’t about isolation so much as focus, a way of protecting the internal space where ideas form. It’s also a throughline visible in his work. His “Pete the Cat” character’s calm confidence and unshakeable ease don’t come from constant stimulation, but from steadiness.
Over decades of illustrating “Pete the Cat” books that have become staples for young readers, Dean has learned to trust that rhythm. The work doesn’t need to rush. It needs room.
Sound, print and visual play
Outside the studio, music is a source of memory for Dean as much as it is inspiration. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimmy Buffett and Jackson Browne connect him to specific moments in his life: college years, early adulthood, formative creative phases.
When he’s looking for visual inspiration, he often turns to print, “The New Yorker,” in particular. Dean has long admired the magazine’s covers, particularly the playful, imaginative ones. Over the years, he’s quietly created his own versions, slipping Pete the Cat into gallery walls, salons and auction rooms as a kind of visual remix.
Pete the Cat appears as gallery-style parody inspired by The New Yorker’s cover art. (Courtesy of James Dean)
The result is both affectionate and subversive: a children’s character occupying spaces traditionally reserved for “serious” art.
Atlanta, resets and what he hopes kids carry forward
If Pete the Cat were wandering Atlanta, Dean lands on a place that feels both specific and universal: the Krispy Kreme on Ponce de Leon Avenue. For him, it’s one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks — familiar, iconic and rooted in everyday experience.
That instinct, to ground creativity in places people actually know, carries over into how Dean resets when the work feels stuck. Sometimes that means getting in the car and driving out into the country. Other times, it means returning to music more actively, by taking guitar lessons.
Those moments of reset, Dean says, aren’t about escaping the work. They’re about staying open to it.
When he thinks about young readers, that openness is what he hopes “Pete the Cat” helps model. Not perfection. Not achievement. But kindness, curiosity and the confidence to keep moving forward — even when things feel uncertain.
