Remembering the Woman Who Walked Ahead

It's late in the day of this December 4th but I can't let the day pass without noting that this is the birthday of artist Caroline Weldon. Caroline was born on this day in 1844 in Switzerland and emigrated to the United States in 1852 with her recently divorced mother. Her birth name was Susanna Karolina Faesch.  She and her mother settled in Brooklyn, New York and in 1866 she married Dr. Bernard Schlatter.  The marriage was not a happy one and generated no children.  She left her husband and followed a married man, living with him briefly in Hoboken, New Jersey and giving birth to their son in 1876 or 1877.  She was soon in the position of being a single mother when the married man returned to his wife.  She had little choice but to return to Brooklyn to live with her mother and son.  In 1883 she was officially divorced from Dr. Schlatter.

While raising her son she developed her skills as an artist and became politically active in defense of Native American people.  She was distressed by the plight of the Sioux people who were being removed from their land in order to accommodate white settlers and the creation of the states of North and South Dakota.  She was a member of the National Indian Defense Association at a time when very few few people had the courage to stand up for the rights of an entire people who were being driven from their homeland, moved to reservations, and having their culture and way of life destroyed.

Portrait of Sitting Bull by Caroline Weldon
oil on canvas

Upon her mother's death in 1887 she received an inheritance that allowed her to pursue her interests as an artist and as a political activist.  She changed her name to Caroline Weldon.  She had corresponded with Sitting Bull and she decided to fulfill a long held dream of living among the Sioux people by packing up and heading west, uninvited, with her young son.  Caroline's arrival at the Standing Rock reservation in 1889 was problematic.  From the moment of her arrival she was vilified and mocked by the U.S. Army and the white settlers who referred to her as a "white squaw."  The Sioux people were wary of her and her self-appointment as Sitting Bull's representative and translator.  However they came to respect her when they saw that she freely gave her money to procure food and provisions for their people and she was their staunch advocate.  They gave her the name "Woman Walking Ahead."  Caroline painted four portraits of Sitting Bull, though only two are known to have survived.  She became estranged from Sitting Bull when she voiced her opposition to the Ghost Dance movement, telling him that she felt it would make him a target of further U.S. Army aggression.  She left the reservation in November of 1890.  She was traveling to Kansas City, Missouri to live with her nephew when her son died on the trip.

Caroline Weldon in 1915
Photo by Henry Sauerland

Caroline Weldon died in in Brooklyn, New York in 1921 and is buried in that borough's Greenwood Cemetery.

Grave of Caroline Weldon, Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

A 2017 movie, "Woman Walks Ahead," sparked my interest in Caroline Weldon's story.  There are many discrepancies in the movie but it is a good introduction to her life and work. Actress Jessica Chastain gives a restrained yet passionate performance as Catherine/Caroline (one of the discrepancies!) Weldon.

Grape Leaves of Salt Lake City

A friend brought me a gift of grape leaves after visiting her daughter and future son-in-law in Salt Lake City. This accordion book forms a bridge between receiving that gift of fresh and vibrant grape leaves and my desire to perpetuate, materialize, and share that experience of beauty with others.

It began with a perception of beauty in the leaves, apparent to my eyes, a moment that lingered in my mind even as the leaves grew limp and withered. I wanted to share that insight with others and move it from the realm of my inner thoughts into physical, three-dimensional form.

The materials of paper, cardboard, ink, paint, and the leaves themselves, form a bridge that seeks to access that beauty even after it has faded from the physical realm. It brings the viewer both backward to the original gift and forward to a new moment of apprehension. My friend’s gift of grape leaves, carried eastward from Salt Lake City to the island of Manhattan, inspired and generated this gift; it created a bridge of time, of relationship, and of enduring beauty.

This is now on view at the "Building Bridges" show which can be seen at Our Savior's Atonement Luther Church, 178 Bennett Avenue, in Washington Heights, New York City. 

Art for National Watermelon Day

The month of July is designated as Watermelon Month and, to keep the celebration going, August 3rd is observed as National Watermelon Day.  An internet search for National Watermelon Day will give you many facts about watermelons including their botanic classification, place of origin, history of cultivation and the economic value and production of the melons.

I thought it would be interesting to look at watermelons as models and subject material for artists. If you  study art of the last few centuries you will note the presence of the big melons as symbols of abundance, fertility, happiness, and beauty.

Here are a few watermelon-inspired works.

Still Life with Watermelon, Pineapple and Other Fruits

oil on canvas

Albert Eckhout, Dutch painter active in 17th century Brazil

Hoosick Street The Summer Kitchen

colored pencils, strawberry sepal, acrylic interference paint

Ellen Halloran, American artist, 2018

Still Life with Watermelon, Pears and Grapes

oil on canvas

Lily Martin Spencer, American artist, 1860

Be sure to celebrate National Watermelon Day by enjoying some watermelon.

A Blue Moon That's Also a Paschal Moon

 Today, Saturday, March 31st, the second blue moon in 2018 will occur; this means that for the second time this year, two full moons will appear during a single month (moon-th). Double blue moon years are relatively rare, with the last occurring in 1999, and the next in 2037.  

 This blue moon is also a Paschal Moon. The date of Easter is set (in the Western churches) as the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This year the equinox occurred on March 20th and Saturday’s blue moon is the first full moon since then. Tomorrow is Sunday and thus becomes Easter Sunday.

Compassion and the Artist

The Winter 2018 issue of The Compassion Anthology contains my essay on compassion and the artist.  This essay answers the question "Do artists show compassion to themselves when they create works of art?"

Compassion and the Artist

Ellen Halloran

Compassion is defined as a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress and sorrow accompanied by a desire to relieve that suffering. It can refer to both the understanding of another’s pain and the action that stems from that feeling.

Does an artist offer compassion to herself/himself in the process of creating a work of art? 

How does an artist’s work begin? We have an idea that appears  in our mind, something with a  life of its own that wants to be realized in the material world. We may have a feeling of apprehension. Can we fully and worthily realize this idea that wants to come forth?  Avoidance brings us to a state of intellectual paralysis, to a sense of being locked inside of ourselves as the idea searches for a material existence. Some artists speak of being “blocked,” of feeling depressed. Other artists experience this as a kind of anxiety.

Movement unlocks our feeling of helplessness. We move from an idea to a finished form by simple actions—picking up a pencil, making a mark, tearing a sheet of paper, executing a brushstroke,  joining surfaces together—until what was once only a thought achieves a palpable existence in the material world. 

Flannery O’Connor wrote that in art the self, (the artist) becomes “self-forgetful” to facilitate the demands of the ideas that we see in our minds and the things that we actually create from those ideas. In this self-forgetfulness artists act compassionately toward themselves by keeping their ideas  in motion, alleviating their own anxieties, and bringing them forward as gifts to the world in lyrical, energetic and beautiful forms. 

Ellen Halloran is a visual artist working in several media. She has worked as a metalsmith, jeweler, legal proofreader, art teacher and art therapist. She developed and implemented art programs for child victims of sexual abuse, children who witnessed violence, and children recovering from traumatic events. Her work has been seen in galleries and is in many private collections. 

                                                                                   

Happy Groundhog Day!

Here we are again, midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox!  It's the midpoint of calendrical winter in the northern hemisphere and time for the fun and silliness of Groundhog Day. Get ready to celebrate on Friday, February 2nd.

On February 2nd, 1887 Groundhog Day was officially celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. In Europe it had been an old German tradition to predict how long and cold the weather would be by observing the emergence of hedgehogs from their burrows in mid winter. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania chose the ubiquitous groundhog as a replacement for their rodent meteorologist. A newspaper editor in Punxsutawney declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was the country's most reliable weather prognosticator.

There has been a long line of groundhogs known as Punxsutawney Phil ever since then. Phil has come to face competition from other groundhogs in other locations. Among many others, there's Staten Island Chuck in New York and Jimmy of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin and Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia, Canada. What will they say today?