The Knight's Tale

I'll upload this video to my blog later, once I get the file from my son. In the meantime, you can watch it here:

The Knight's Tale

I have noticed a great number of Brit Lit class assignments on YouTube. It was suggested in this instance that students upload their work to YouTube due to the vagaries of DVD compatibility. I imagine it is so for classes across the country, and perhaps across the English-speaking world. So you can watch, if you so desire, a multiplicity of artistic expressions (and license) in the interpretation of The Canterbury Tales.

Have fun!

Sea Monsters

Yes, he's a Sea Monster. But he's OUR Sea Monster.

After spending the weekend making puppets and supporting the efforts of the younger set (see; "The Canterbury Tales", below) I was not really ready to get serious at the studio. So I pieced together this not-very-scary sea serpent from scraps left over from other projects. I think it looks a little bit like one of those illuminated manuscript illustrations depicting monsters at the very edge of the known world.

Acrylic paint on paper, leather and silk with very tiny sea shells. 16 x 25 cm.

The Canterbury Tales

When one is a mother, one is called upon to do some unexpected things. My son came home with a project dealing with the Canterbury Tales, which he is covering in his British Literature class.

Teaming up with a classmate, the two boys decided to do a puppet show, running through the entire Knight's Tale segment of the Canterbury Tales. They are in the middle of filming the puppet show this afternoon and will upload it to YouTube once it is complete.

I made the puppets the day before from wool felt, gluing and lightly sewing on costumes, and then painting the faces. I even made a couple of horses, for the battle scenes. And after all, what is a Knight without his trusty steed? The boys have written the script, will film and edit it, and add music.

The cast of characters, among many, includes Theseus:

His new wife, Queen Hippolyta:

And her sister, the fair Emilie:

I will let you know the YouTube address as soon as we have one. Should be pretty good. Due in class on Wednesday!

Human puppets are about 30 cm tall, by about 20 cm. wide, cruciform. A variety of fabric scraps, yarns and trims on wool felt, with acrylic paint.

Mapping Her Contours

A man's silhouette gazes down on a woman's body as if she is a map of the world. Below this scene, a glove is delicately painted with a toile de Jouy scene.

The two scenes are contrasted - the pastoral glove below with the contemplation of a violation above. The man above is capable of treating both Woman and World in the precisely same way; the woman is mapped out according to his plans with longitude and latitude and borders clearly demarcated. The scene below is one of courtship and playfulness.

Acrylic paint on paper, microfiber polyester, leather and tile fragments, with 22k gold leaf. 25 x 36 cm.

Flights of Fancy

From the Greeks, to the Maori, to Native Americans, the World is filled with legends of Birdwomen. Sirens, harpies, and sharp-tongued, grasping, snatching women - to encounter a Birdwoman was never a good thing, and always potentially very dangerous.

“The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.”

-Walter Savage Landor

This Birdwoman spreads her wings, while her Sisters perch in the corner above. She took only four hours to do today, from collage start to painted finish, as She is quite small. 16.5 x 25 cm.

Acrylic on silk and paper, with 22k gold leaf.

Kid Gloves

This really was a one-day painting. I did it today, from 10am to 3pm.

Still on a musical theme, a Lady curls around a piano. Her legs are Music and the notes, Abalone, again. A white-gloved hand spills money into her lap. So she becomes a kind of Danaë figure.

Gloves have an ancient symbolism, particularly white kid gloves. They are seen in Masonic rites. A glove thrown down is a challenge. A Lady gave one of her gloves to her Knight before a tournament to show her favor. And "kid gloves" treatment is always the gentlest.

An interesting site about gloves, their history and symbolism, and some beautiful hand-made examples: Estrella Gloves

Acrylic paint on paper, with silk, leather, wool, abalone and "pearl" button. 25 x 32 cm.

Endlessly Rocking

I am involved in a fundraiser for the local art association, which takes place this Sunday. In this instance the fundraiser takes the form of a chair auction, in which each artist receives a chair to refinish or restore, usually artistically. The chair can be functional as a chair, or it can be deconstructed completely and end up bearing no resemblance at all to anything one could sit on.

I received only an interesting chair fragment for the chair auction. Immediately I thought I should do a wall piece in assemblage form. The stanzas from Walt Whitman's poem, “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking” kept coming to mind. I determined to make a piece essentially illustrating this poem. The three main characters in the poem are a young boy, and a mockingbird. The Sea is also a character which communicates a message in the poem. The bird nests with its mate on a beach on Long Island, which Whitman always referred to as its Indian name of Paumanok.

The fragment of chair I received was the back of the chair with legs. I scavenged an old wooden rocking horse for parts such as the rockers and the head of the horse, because a chair can also have rockers, and I attached them to the chair. Therefore, there was a connection between the chair as a rocking chair and the childhood toy as a rocking horse. So one could see the beginning and end of life as well, I thought.

In the course of the poem, one day the female of the pair fails to return to the nest and is lost forever. The plaintive calls of the male and the sense of loss in his song cause the boy to wish to learn to be able to communicate this loss, and all losses, to others in the form of poetry. It is a coming-of-age poem.

In order to make the chair into an illustration of the poem, I carved a bird from basswood and gilded it with 22k gold leaf. The bird perches on one of the rockers.

The young boy is painted into a “window” in the back of the chair.

And the Sea is depicted as all around, endlessly rocking, and endlessly whispering.

Bidding begins at only $35.-

I include a link to, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking , for your pleasure.

Principles of Music

Okay, so this painting took two days, instead of one. My days are a little shorter once school starts, and sometimes things need drying time. But you'll forgive me.

This painting started out with very little plan. Only some pieces of silk fabric with flowers and horizontal lines. It reminded me of sheets of music and so I collaged some 18th century reproduction musical papers, cut out a heart in chamois, and sprinkled some tobacco and tea here and there. Small bits of abalone shell made up musical notes across the page. I added a cork paper canoe and some muskrat fur to give it a sense of period. Still, it was missing something...

Rummaging around in my collage supply I found a card from a local guitar store, advertising a course of lessons. It consisted of a photo of a guitar with just the center sound hole and some strings and frets. It was the kind of thing you'd find hanging on your front door when you arrive home - there was a space for the doorknob. I attached this ad to the side of the entire piece and placed one of my gel medium cast coins on the hanging hole. So now I had a "pay the piper" idea going. I painted into the center hole of the guitar a woman undressing. Her garter has already been loosened (a broken string?) More coins and a lover's portrait in the center of the heart and the piece was complete.

Play on...

Acrylic paint on paper with silk, leather, fur, cork, abalone shell, tobacco and tea. 27 x 43 cm.

A Glimpse of the River Beyond

In spite of the renewal of intense activity surrounding the start of the school year, I actually have had time to paint. And, in fact, to return to some "one day" paintings. I will post them here as I photograph and scan them.

This painting was only really a half-day painting, as it is quite small - only 16.5 x 25 cm., and composed of very simple elements. A shepherdess lifts her head over a dry landscape to catch the sight and scent of a refreshing River beyond the desert which surrounds her.

Acrylic paint on Arches paper, with cotton, silk and beads.

Spirits

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Acrylic paint on small boulder, nestled in red lava rocks.