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.