Tag Archives: fineartfriday

The Imagination of Men, Young and Old

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The Young Cavalry Man
Augustus Edward Mulready
Bridgeman Art Library

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Funny Quote from Vanity Fair

Lord Tapeworm inherited no little portion of the family gallantry, and it was his happy belief that almost every woman upon whom he himself cast friendly eyes was in love with him.  He left Emmy under the persuasion that she was slain by his wit and attractions and went home to his lodgings to write a pretty little note to her.

She was not fascinated, only puzzled by his grinning, his simpering, his scented cambric handkerchief, and his high-heeled lacquered boots.  She did not understand one half the compliments which he paid. She had never in her small experience with mankind met a professional ladies’ man, as yet, and looked upon my lord as something curious, rather than pleasant.  And if she did not admire, certainly wondered at him.

as transcribed from Librivox recording, chapter 63
~ William Makepeace Thackery

Fine Art Friday & Grandparent Names

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Cottage Vincent van Gogh

I’m doing a joint garage sale with my MIL today.  I had an oversized book of van Gogh prints in the sale for $2.  I started looking at it and pulled it off the table, putting it back in my stack.  I used to believe I didn’t like van Gogh, and it’s true there are some fractured paintings not to my taste, to quote my friend Dana (I miss you!).  But this Cottage just draws me in and seems to have a very long story to tell.  My house is small, but if I have to I will frame some of the pictures and hang them in the garage. 

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I was watching my grandson Gavin one day when his other grandpa dropped something off at our house. 

“Hey Gavin,” I called, “look who’s here!”

He came running and grinned the cutest grin and said, “DaddyDad!” 

That’s how I discovered Gavin’s name for his other Grandpa.  He could never master Granddad…it came out DaddyDad.  So here’s the lineup for the little guy, excluding the massive list of aunts and uncles:

Daddy and Mommy

DaddyDad and Grammy (my DIL’s folks – I can’t wait to give her a Grammy Award)

Papa and Nana (that’s Curt and me)

Grandpa and Ma’am (the great grandparents)

Granddad and Grammy (the other great grandparents who live out of town)

It’s silly, but names for grandparents fascinate me.  Some, like Opa, come from national origins.  Others, like my oldest brother, Grumpy, come from the limitations of a child’s speech.  I remember recently when George Grant became a grandpa, he was amazed at how many choices there are in Grandma names and how few in Grandpa names. 

I would love to hear from you, lurkers and all, either what you called your grandparents or what your grandparents call you, OR what names you’ve heard which delight or tickle you.

Hudson and Gage

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First, Fine Art Friday.  I think I’d title this one Comrades! Isn’t it charming?


The Watermelon 
Grace Hudson (1865-1937)

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When Circle of Quiet posted a list of what her readers are reading this summer, this book caught my attention.  My niece Emma is spending the summer working at the American embassy in Athens.  Her mom, my beloved SIL Kathie, is the mother of two world travelers.  She gave me the idea of reading books set in the location of their travels.  So I was on the prowl for a book about Greece.   When  I saw this, I immediately emailed Kathie about my plans to read it.  She emailed back and wondered if Eleni Gage was related to Nicholas Gage who wrote the book Eleni. She is his daughter.  Bingo!  Obviously, I couldn’t read North of Ithaka until I’d first read Eleni.

This is a true story, set in WWII and the subsequent Greek Civil War of 1946-1949, of a mother who sacrifices her life to save her children’s lives.  Her son, who lost his mother when he was nine, writes the story.  I listened to this story on my morning walks and the plot was so compelling that I put in many extra miles so I could keep listening.  Each night at dinner I told Curt and Collin vignettes from the book.  

In the same way that The Kiterunner immerses you into Afghani  culture, Eleni will immerse you into culture of the Greek mountain village of Lia.  There are more similarities.  Both authors write astonishing prose in a language not native to them.  The story grips your heart, and seeps into your soul.  Heartbreak takes up residence.  I will be thinking about this book in December, I know I will.  Nicholas Gage was an investigative reporter with the New York Times.  After he honed his skills investigating the mafia he moved back to Greece to investigate his mother’s execution by communist guerrillas.  Then he wrote this book.

His daughter’s book, North of Ithaka, is the story of Eleni Gage’s (Nick’s daughter) decision to move to Greece to rebuild Eleni Gatzoyiannis’ (Nick’s mother) home in Lia. Some reviewers have called it an ex-patriot story, comparing it to Under the Tuscan Sun.  However, I cannot start this book until I’ve read Eleni‘s sequel, A Place for Us, Eleni’s Children in America. 

The story is taken up when Nicholas and his sisters Olga, Kanta, and Fotini leave Greece, travel by ship to  America, moving to Worcester, Massachusetts where their father, Christos, has made a home. The most important job a Greek father has is to get his daughters married to a good Greek husband.  Think: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Eventually Nick’s sister Glykeria was able to escape from the communists, join the family, and marry a good Greek boy.  After I have finished this book and have the context to the tight Greek community in America, I will be ready to read Eleni Gage’s story of moving back to Greece.

Fine Art Friday

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Five Boys on a Wall
Eastman Johnson c. 1871
 
For a larger view of the picture,
go to The Athenaeum and click on the picture

I like the contrast between the sharply defined edges of the boys’ figures,
and the fuzzy lines at the grass and sky.
Also, the wide parallel chunks across the picture
contrasted with the vertical images of the boys.

Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to wear all those clothes when it’s hot? 
I saw a picture of a fair in St. Louis taken around 1910. 
Every man wore a suit and hat; every woman had volumes
of dark dress and skirts gathered close to her body.
Long sleeves on every man and woman.
And the temperature was 105°!!
They made them tough back then.

Fishing, Octaves and Chesterton

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An Afternoon Fishing, 1917
Nikolai Bogdanoff-Bjelski
Art Renewal Center

Ah, the joys of boyhood!  I had been thinking of donning a docent’s cap and explaining some stuff I’ve learned about late medieval art; but when I saw this print it shouted “Summer!” “June!” “Boys!” and medieval art faded away.

☼     ☼     ☼

Words are simply delicious.  Yesterday I was reviewing intervals with one of my piano students.  When we came to eighths I said, “You rarely hear the term eighths; normally we say octaves.”  She sucked in her breath, eyes as big as stop signs, and repeated, “Eighths – octaves!  Like octagon!  I. never. knew. that. before.”   Cha-ching!!

☼     ☼     ☼

More from Thomas Cahill, a hat tip to GK Chesterton: 

The introduction of Chesterton’s Ballad of the White Horse
will no doubt strike some readers as irrelevant, since it is
an early twentieth-century, not a medieval work;
and the incident Chesterton gives us–
Alfred’s vision of the Virgin–
has no historical basis.
But for me, as in my earlier recommendation
of Kristin Lavransdatter,
there is here a genuine evocation of the feeling and fabric
of the High Middle Ages that is worthy of our attention.

☼     ☼     ☼

Off to clean my house today.  Those gooky corners of my windows.  The dusty bookshelves.   The scuzzy underneaths.  Nothing says “I love you” louder to my husband than walking into a fresh, clean house; that is, walking into his own house and finding it fresh and clean. 

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart.
Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling
and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.

~   Augustine

Clothe Mine Affections

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Old Lady with a Distaff
c. 1642
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

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Huswifery
by Edward Taylor (1642-1729)

 Make me, O Lord, Thy spinning wheel complete.
     Thy Holy Word my distaff make for me.
Make mine affections Thy swift flyers neat
    And make my soul Thy holy spool to be.
    My conversation make to be Thy reel
    And reel the yarn thereon spun of Thy wheel.

Make me Thy loom then, knit therein this twine:
    And make Thy Holy Spirit, Lord, wind quills:
Then weave the web Thyself. The yarn is fine.
    Thine ordinances make my fulling mills.
    Then dye the same in heavenly colors choice,
    All pinked with varnished flowers of paradise.

Then clothe therewith mine understanding, will,
    Affections, judgment, conscience, memory,
My words, and actions, that their shine may fill
    My ways with glory and Thee glorify.
    Then mine apparel shall display before Ye
    That I am clothed in holy robes for glory.

* distaff = a staff that holds on its cleft end the unspun flax, wool, or tow from which thread is drawn in spinning by hand
*wind quills = fill spools with thread or yarn
*web = cloth
* fulling mills = mills where cloth is beaten and cleaned
* pinked = adorned, shining

Does this stop you in your tracks with its stunning beauty
as it does me?
I. AM. memorizing. this. poem.
A conversation as a reel…
The soul as a spool…
Clothe my understanding…
The yarn is fine.

 

Fine Art Friday

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A Music Party
Arthur Hughes, 1864

This painting makes me laugh today. 
What music can be playing that is putting them all into a stupor? 
I just heard a most glorious concert of
Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto
which was thrilling in its vigor and virtuosity. 
The boy in the back of A Music Party reminds me of my son
during certain poetry readings…giving in to a languid, ‘this will eventually be over’ state.

Happy Friday, all.

Fine Art Friday

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A Child’s Question by Jessie Wilcox Smith

There’s nothing particular about this piece I’d like to say.  It was just a Jessie Wilcox Smithish sort of day and this caught both my eye and my heart.  I watched three young sisters (1,3,5) last weekend and I saw some of this mothering take place. 

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Tomorrow is graduation day for my hard-working daughter-in-law.  Hooray!  We’re headed up to Pullman, WA to join in the celebration of this achievement.  Taryn and Carson met at a campus Christian group in their freshman year.  When they discovered that they had both started home schooling in the fifth grade they knew it must be God’s will that they get married (just kidding!). 

Taryn will graduate (some kind of) cum laud with a degree in journalism.  We are so pleased with her perseverance and excellence.  She is and continues to be such a blessing to our son.  Go girl!  Carson will begin a six month [paying] internship in June.   It is lovely to watch them grow and flourish.  

Pomp and Circumstance just makes me well up and cry.  I can’t decide if it is the tune itself or the associations with it.  But the best part of graduation is the exuberant joy and the delicious relief when the caps are thrown. L’chaim!