Clouds of Christmas Eve Morning

Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:

"Pipe a song about a Lamb."
So I piped with merry cheer;
"Piper, pipe that song again."
So I piped; he wept to hear.

           Songs of Innocence [1789 - 1790]
           Introduction, st.1,  2
         
           William Blake 1757 - 1827

Fifty Years On

To all my classmates, teachers, friends, and family who were together on that Friday afternoon and the days that followed.  Fifty years on and I still see you as though it were now.

 We know that three hundred years before that day Shakespeare expressed our thoughts most clearly.

When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
          
                            Romeo and Juliet, III, ii, 21

Saint Teresa of Avila

Today is celebrated as the feast day of Saint Teresa of Avila.  This is a portrait of her painted by Peter Paul Rubens many years after her death.

Teresa died at Alba de Tormes in 1582.  She died either shortly before midnight on October 4th or early in the morning of October 15th.  This was the time when much of Europe was switching from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar and the transition required the removal of October 5 - 14 for that year.

In the twentieth century many women of intellect, including Beauvoir, tried to place Teresa within a pantheon of postmodern "subversives" against patriarchal power structures.  For her daughters in Carmel, and her thousands of followers over the last five centuries, Teresa's courage, wit, tenacity, and lively intelligence cannot be confined or defined by these academic theories.

Thoughts on an Annual Tradition

It's almost Halloween and so it's time for the annual "guess how much the pumpkin weighs" contests.  You find them all over the country - in stores and farmers' markets and parking lots.  Sometimes it's just a large pumpkin sitting on the back of a pickup truck. This one, like so many enormous pumpkins, seems to have almost collapsed under its own weight.  I wonder if this is the one that cartoon character Charlie Brown is waiting for - The Great Pumpkin!  Wait a minute!  I think that Cinderella didn't make it home on time and the glitzy golden coach was turned back into a splendid and real orange pumpkin.  A pumpkin like this one will make many pies and custards and make many people happy.

September Afternoon Visitors

The urban birds of my neighborhood seem to raise their families year round.  I shouldn't have been surprised to see such a young mourning dove outside my window this afternoon under the watchful eyes of an adult.

I stopped reading the book in my hands and flipped the pages back to a most appropriate line of writing.

". . . one listens to the mourning dove terracing its sweet calls . . ."

from "On Beauty and Being Just"  by Elaine Scarry

Still Life with Watermelon, Pears, and Grapes

This painting by Lilly Martin Spencer is in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.   It is oil painted on canvas and generally assumed to have been painted around the year 1860.  I love the balance of rich colors, the detail of texture given to the surface on which the fruit rests, and the top of the watermelon which appears to have been bitten in enjoyment.

I need to make a correction to my post of February 15th.  It's true that Lilly was painting right up until the time of her death, at her easel, but she died in New York City, not Highland, New York.  She is buried next to her husband, Benjamin Rush Spencer, in Highland.

Nearly every day of the year is a national food holiday here in the United States and today, August 3, is National Watermelon Day.  Foods from apples to popcorn to zucchini all have their own commemorative day - sometimes a whole month will celebrate one food.  For some reason that I don't understand, National Watermelon Day is celebrated in August but July is designated as National Watermelon Month.

A Botany Lesson

When I tell people that I use strawberry sepals in my collages (http://www.ellenhalloran.com) they always respond "What's a sepal"?
If you aren't ready to search the dictionary I can tell you that it's part of the structure of a flower.  They're the leafy green parts that add to the form of the calyx.  Look up 'flower' and you will usually find a simple illustration of the parts of a flower.
I cut the sepals from the strawberry and then use a process to clean and preserve them.  Here they are right after being cut from the strawberry.

Happy Independence Day! Happy Fourth of July!

The Artist and Her Family on a Fourth of July Picnic

   This painting by Lilly Martin Spencer can be seen at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.  It was painted around the year 1864 and depicts a scene of relaxation, frivolity, and enjoyment,

as friends and family gather to celebrate Independence Day.
   At the center of the picture is the artist's husband, Benjamin.  Apparently his weight has been too much for the tree swing and he lies on the ground.  The artist depicts herself with arms outstretched going to his aid.  A child is trying to help him.
   There are at least two people in this painting who appear to be African-American. While one of them is serving a refreshment of some sort, the other appears to be enjoying the day's festivities.  The painting is oil on canvas and measures 49 1/2"  x 63."

Poem in Your Pocket Day

April is National Poetry Month and April 18th is Poem in Your Pocket Day.  It's a day for sharing poems that you like.  Pick out a poem and carry it with you to share with friends, family, and co-workers.

Here's my pick for 2013.

 

DESIGN

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,

On a white heal-all, holding up a moth

Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--

Assorted characters of death and blight,

Mixed ready to begin the morning right,

Like the ingredients of a witch's broth--

A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth 

And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,

The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?

What brought the kindred spider to that height,

Then steered the white moth thither in the night?

What but design of darkness to appall?--

If design govern in a thing so small?

Robert Frost  (1874 - 1963)

An American Silversmith

Paul Revere was the third child of Apollos Rivoire and Deborah Hitchborn.  The French-born and Huguenot Rivoire anglicized the family name to Revere.  His son Paul apprenticed in his father's silver shop at an early age.

Today Paul Revere is most widely remembered for his famous midnight ride (which we commemorate tomorrow) warning the American colonists of advancing British troops before the battles of Lexington and Concord.  The lines of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem commemorating that event contain numerous inaccuracies but nevertheless paint a memorable picture.   Here are stanzas 1 and 2 from "Tales of a Wayside Inn,  The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride"

"Listen my children, and you shall hear,
 Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
 On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
 Hardly a man is now alive
 Who remembers that famous day and year.

 One if by land, and two if by sea;
 And I on the opposite shore will be,
 Ready to ride and spread the alarm
 Through every Middlesex village and farm."

Paul Revere went on to serve other roles in the American Revolution.  He served in the Massachusetts militia's ill-fated Penobscot Expedition of 1779.

After the war he expanded his metalworking interests to include cast iron and the use of rolling mills in the production of sheets of copper.   His firm went on to produce church bells and cannons.   Revere remained politically active throughout his life and died on May 10, 1818.

John Singleton Copley (1738 - 1815) painted a portrait of Paul Revere in 1770.  Copley often painted individuals with an artifact that was associated with the subject's life and here Paul Revere is shown holding a teapot.  Tea was a hot-button issue for the American colonists at the time this portrait was painted and Revere seems to be seriously contemplating the importance of the work of his hands.

Perfect Placement

On returning to the New York Botanic Garden I was able to see all of the monumental outdoor sculptures of Manolo Valdés. These enormous sculptures of female heads portray an understanding of gardens and vegetal growth in ways that are beautiful and playful. One sculpture in particular seems to be perfectly integrated into its surrounding landscape - reflecting the spreading, branching trees that frame it. "Fiore" is 17 feet high and its headdress incorporates the forms of oak and maple leaves. This bronze and steel work provides an agreeable color contrast to the lofty trees and greening lawn and creates a splendid vista.

Adonis Flower

Even though the temperature was only 33 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday morning, this yellow-flowering early spring perennial has been in blossom for some time now. There are numerous plants named 'adonis' and they bring to mind the Greek myth of the beautiful youth who was killed by a boar. Flowers sprang from he spot where his blood touched the earth. The flowers of myth are red but many yellow flowers celebrate a return to life each spring.

Lilly Martin Spencer

Lilly Martin Spencer was born in England to French parents in 1822. The family immigrated to New York in 1830. Lilly began painting at an early age and was encouraged to do so by her parents who recognized her abilities. She spent many years living and working in Ohio. In her marriage she was the main breadwinner and her work achieved national recognition. She and her husband raised seven children and she was painting right up until her death in 1902 in Highland, New York.

Still Life with Berries and Currants (1859 - 1860)

For Groundhog Day - a tangelo

February 2nd is celebrated as Groundhog Day in various parts of the United States. It marks that point in the calendar when we are halfway between winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Whether or not the groundhog sees its shadow today is imagined to be an indicator of the remaining length of winter weather.

I was thinking of light and shadow - and the color wheel and theory of complementary colors this morning. Working with blue paper I realized it really is the perfect complement to the color of the tangelo I was about to eat. When I placed the tangelo on the paper it cast a shadow. Now, I know the tangelo probably doesn't see its own shadow but does this mean we're in for six more weeks of winter?

January's Wolf Moon

Our recent full moon of January 26th is called a "Wolf Moon" in the legacy of northern and eastern tribes of the Algonquin and Iroquois nations. In cold mid-winter snows, wolves roam the landscape in search of food.
No wolves are seen around here but the moon still rises bright, clear, and crisp over buildings put up to house the waves of immigrants of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: these are the buildings we refer to as tenements.

Jamaican-born poet of the Harlem Renaissance, Claude McKay (1889 - 1948), was inspired by the sight of moonlight over the tenements.


"Upon the clothes behind the tenements,
That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines,
Linking each flat,but to each indifferent,
Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines."

A Song of the Moon
Claude McKay


The use of the clothes drier and concerns for tenant safety have brought the sight of laundry lines to an end in most big cities; but the moon still shines upon the tenements and, in places far away, families of wolves are searching for sustenance.

Looking forward

The winter holiday celebrations are fading quickly. The green presence and the fragrance of our homes' Christmas trees are about to become a thing of the past. It's the start of a new year - 2013 - and we begin to look forward to spring's verdant growth and renewal.
Even if you have only a window box, it's a great joy to spend time on a cold and gray day browsing through garden seed and plant catalogues. The photographs and illustrations are splendid and bring on dreams of warmer, sunnier times, hands digging into earth, and bountiful harvests of flowers, fruit, and vegetables.
American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner wrote seriously and sometimes humorously about gardening.

"To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch the renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race..."

"The thing generally raised on city land is taxes."

Charles Dudley Warner, American author, 1829-1900
My Summer in a Garden [1870]