Handsome Is as Handsome Does

Here is another pug painting of mine, and nothing is so true as the caption. I left the Nestle’s wrapper lying out in its “model position” after I’d finished the painting and Pippin could not leave it alone. Fortunately, the chocolate bar had been pulled out.

As I paint lately, I’ve been listening to audio books. For this painting, the book was Lost In Shangri La by Mitchell Zuckoff, the story of a downed WW II plane in the mountainous jungles of New Guinea. A WAC and two soldiers survived the crash and made a harrowing hike, in spite of grave burns and injuries, to the sweet potato field of New Guinean tribesmen who had never before beheld Caucasians and thought they were spirits. The valley was hitherto undiscovered, as late as the 1940s — actually there had been an exploratory expedition earlier, in which one tribesman had been killed by the white men, but it had been relatively unpublicized — and resident tribes were living in permanent strife and cannibalism.

Fortunately, the tribesmen they encountered categorized only two groups, Perpetual and Historic Enemies, on the one hand, and Non-enemies (read Everyone Else), on the other. Since they were unknown, the Americans were accepted as Non-enemies and neither killed nor eaten. It’s the story of courage, comradeship, among the Americans, and generosity and humor on the part of the Guineans. For example, the Guinean men all wore penis gourds, without which they never appeared in public — I was listening to the audiobook, without pictures, so I can only imagine. A group of paratroopers, who had landed to provide medical assistance and protection to the survivors had such fascinating complexions and hair, that the Guinean men who’d seen them land, walked up and began touching them on the arms and backs etc, thinking their pale skins were clothing. They were apparently fascinated for hours and kept up the investigation until the Americans had had enough and concluded that the Guineans must think they were women! So, they all took their pants off to prove they were male, thinking this would put a stop to the petting and maintained this state of undress for for a couple of hours. Well, the Guineans were never in any doubt about the paratroopers’ gender, but they were scandalized by their lack of modesty. So here were two groups of people, never able to exchange an intelligible word to each other, each thinking the other group was crazy!  The mystery wasn’t cleared up until years later, when a few surviving individuals, who remembered the spirits who’d descended from sky, were interviewed by the author. The paratroopers never knew what fools they’d appeared to a more modest, if largely naked, culture.
It’s a great story and all true. I highly recommend it.

Handsome is as Handsome Does, 8×10, $350 USD

Finnish Pride Lobster Boat

 My annual trip to Maine.  Here I am heading to Pemaquid Point, having a great lunch with friends, Maria, David and Devi, when I see a lobster boat owned by local Finns!

Last weekend, my friend, Josephine, and I attended the opening of a wonderful new exhibit at the Art Institute of Minneapolis.  Josie has been to Venice not once, but twice, and is going again in March.  Lucky girl!  I have not, so being newly exposed to these colossal, Italian masterpieces was a wonderful new experience…..Well, that’s disingenuous.  It would have been wonderful, even if I’d seen them 100 times.

Diana and Actaeon by Titian

Titian’s Diana and Actaeon shows the hapless hunter stumbling upon the Greek Goddess of the Hunt, originally Artemis, while she is bathing.  Artemis was a free-roaming, athletic (despite appearances in this painting), virgin goddess.  She can be seen at the right of the painting directing a “bone-chilling” gaze (as I heard it described by an art expert on NPR) at Actaeon from over her arm, while her companions reach for their wraps or fail to notice the intruder.  As punishment, Artemis turned Actaeon into a stag, at which point his own hounds attacked him.  In the background of the painting, one can see the scull of a stag and a deerskin hanging over a branch.  The colors are gorgeous, especially the rose-colored, velvety cloth upon which Diana sits.  This color appears and reappears in Titan’s paintings.  I would like to know more about his palette.

Diana and Callisto

Titian’s Diana and Callisto was painted as a companion piece to Diana and Actaeon. In myth, Callisto was Diana’s favorite companion in the hunt.  One day, Zeus saw her and as was his habit, decided to force the acquaintance.  Callisto became pregnant as a result and in this scene, her condition is uncovered.  Diana banishes her from her presense .  (Now, I know I read somewhere that Artemis was an avenger of wronged women, but when the culprit is one’s own father, apparently justice goes awry.)  In the aftermath of this scene, Calliso was turned into a bear by spitefulness of Hera, Zeus’ wife.  Her son was raised by another, but was named Arcas or Bear in Greek, referring to his mother’s fate.  Poor Callisto was eventually on the verge of being speared when she tried to give her son a motherly bear hug.  Zeus came to her rescue, but instead of turning her back into a beautiful woman, turned her into the Arctophylas or Great Bear Constellation, aka Ursa Major and Big Dipper.

Venus Rising from the Sea

Titian’s Venus Rising from the Sea is a simple and elegant subject.  I will make only the observation that Venus is Titian-haired.  The strands she is wringing out have auburn highlights.  So also is the Madonna in the Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist and an Unidentified Male Saint (surely Joseph).  This is the hair-color for which Titian is famous.  I will only remark that Diana and her girl corps are blond, as are The Venetian Women at their Toilet by Paris Bordone, and Venus in Veronese’ Mars and Venus with Cupid.  The Venetians definitely had a thing for fair hair.

The Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and an Unidentified Male Saint

There is that beautiful rose color again on the exquisitely painted sleeve.

Mars and Venus with Cupid

The scale and drama of the Diana paintings and especially their wonderful colors made a lasting impression on me.  I have to say though that the Veronese was my favorite painting in person.  (Why is Mars wearing a helmet!  Can you think of anything less conducive to amour? I imagine it is because otherwise he’d look just like any other gentleman from Verona.)   I think it’s because of the beauty of Venus’ skin and the delicacy of her features.  I looked for the best images of these paintings among the many art cards and books for sale in the Gift Shop.  None of them can quite convey how lovely that Veronese painting is.  You should just go see it

The little spaniel too was wonderful.  Diana has a little spaniel in Diana and Callisto and one of these little dogs figures in Titian’s Danae (not in the show)  as well.  I like to think it was Titan’s dog.  If not, they must have been ubiquitous as companions to ladies.

Little Spaniel from Titian's Danae

Little dogs are the perfect defender of the boudoir.  Did you know that on Napolean’s wedding night Josephine’s pug bit him?  Bravo Brutus!

This is a diptich I’ve had in the works for a long time, but have just completed.  It’s a modern take on a story from Homer’s Odyssey, Book IX, where first Odysseus’ men, then Odysseus himself, become guests of an island enchantress.  Beginning with the words of Eurylochos, who reports to his captain, this is Richmond Lattimore’s translation of the adventure:

“We went, O glorious Odysseus, through the growth as you told us, and found a fine house in the glen.  It was in an open place, and put together from stones, well polished.  Someone, goddess or woman, was singing inside in a clear voice as she went up and down her loom, and they called her, and spoke to her, and at once she opened the shining doors, and came out and invited them in, and all in their innocence entered, only I waited for them outside, for I suspected treachery.  Then the whole lot of them vanished away together, nor did one single one come out, though I sat and watched for a long time….”

So he spoke, and I answered again in turn and said to him:  “Eurylochos, you may stay here eating and drinking, even where you are and beside the hollow black ship; only I shall go.  For there is a strong compulsion upon me.”

So I spoke and started up from the ship and the seahore.  But as I went up through the lonely glens, and was coming near to the great house of Circe, skilled in medicines, there as I came up to the house, Hermes, of the golden staff, met me on my way, in the likeness of a young man with beard new grown, which is the most graceful time of young manhood.  He took me by the hand and spoke to me and named me, saying: “Where are you going, unhappy man, all alone, through the hillotops, ignorant of the land-lay, and your friends are here in Circe’s place, in the shape of pigs and holed up…Do you come here meaning to set them free?  I do not think you will get back yourself, but must stay here with the others.  But see, I will find you a way out of your troubles, and save you.  Here, this is a good medicine, take it, and go into Circe’s house; it will give you power against the day of trouble.  And I will tell you all the malevolent guiles of Circe.  She will make you a potion, and put drugs in the food, but she will not even so be able to enchant you, for this good medicine which I give you now will prevent her.  I will tell you the details of what to do.  As soon as Circe with her long wand strikes you, then drawing from beside your thigh your sharp sword, rush forward against Circe, as if you were raging to kill her, and she will be afraid, and invite you to go to bed with her.  Do not then resist and refuse the bed of the goddess, for so she will set free your companions, and care for you also; but bid her swear the great oath of the blessed gods, that she has no other evil hurt that she is devising against you, so she will not make you weak and unmanned, once you are naked.”

Ah, it was a dangerous world out there for Greek men in the Bronze Age.

Odysseus, 12×24, Oil on Canvas

Circe, 12×24, Oil on Canvas

Portrait of the Pug as a Young Dog

I’ve been pulling my hair out over more ambitious projects, so it is a comfort to be able to turn to my little dog and add to my collection of Pug Paintings.

Here is a poem by Sara Teasdale:

Those Who Love

Those who love the most,

Do not talk of their love,

Francesca, Guinevere,

Deirdre, Iseult, Heloise,

In the fragrant gardens of heaven

Are silent, or speak if at all

Of fragile, inconsequent things.

And a woman I used to know

Who loved one man from her youth,

Against the strength of the fates

Fighting in somber pride,

Never spoke of this thing,

But hearing his name by chance,

A light would pass over her face. 

I haven’t been able to blog recently, because for some reason I wasn’t able to upload photographs.  This is how the Faux Bois Table Base looked at the Fall Art Tour in October.  The brown was actually a black stain, but due to the unpredictability of how acid stain will react to the composition of the concrete, it came out a rich brown.  I rather like it, but will be adding black, in order to make it look more like oak.

Since I won’t be able to paint for the next couple of days, I’m posting this mostly finished companion piece to my Lady Finger Cake. What I need to still do is paint a few of the guard hairs on Pippin’s coat and work on the curtain behind, toning down the color and painting the brocade with more precision.

Reconstructing my life in the wake of my husband’s death has been pretty all consuming. I am trying to get back on track before the Fall Art Tour, but 2010 will just go down on record as my Year of Personal Disaster. I know I have dropped out of sight painting-wise, but hopefully, as more pressing matters are taken care of, I will be able to resurface.

I will be working on a Faux Wood Concrete Bench this summer. Matt’s ashes are to be buried on our land in Eagle River and I am going to make a place to sit down nearby. A friend, Andy, and I have been doing research about how to do it, as we’re novices. Andy knows concrete though. His business is making concrete countertops. I’m excited about learning to do this and will no doubt blog the process.

I saw this article and thought I would share. I thought it a very exciting archaeological discovery! Just click on the link below:

10th century BC city wall possibly built by King Solomon found in Jerusalem – dnaindia.com