I didn’t really mean for the painting to come out so pristine-ish (note the perfectly rounded left tree). However, I’ve grown to love the fairytale quality – a place of perfection where nothing can go wrong.
Fairytale Endings
artists
The Recycling of Dead People
Perhaps, with a droll sense of humor, you will chuckle to learn what French artist Martin Drolling used to make Mummy Brown.
“Art historians believe he used the remains of French kings disinterred from the royal abbey of St. Denis in Paris” to create the burnt/raw umber hue in the below painting.
Kinda makes you think twice about what the women on the canvas are actually thinking.
daily word prompt: via Droll
Plain or Pretty – we can all relate to this
A reminder about the challenges of growing into ourselves.
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth
And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say “come dance with me”
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn’t all it seems at seventeen
A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn’t all it seems at seventeen
A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said: “pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve”
The rich relationed hometown queen
Said: “pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve”
The rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly
So remember those who win the game
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly
So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debitures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
In debitures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen
To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
The world was younger than today
When dreams were all they gave for free
It was long ago and far away
The world was younger than today
When dreams were all they gave for free
To ugly duckling girls like me…
We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: “come on, dance with me”
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen
That call and say: “come on, dance with me”
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen
by Janis Ian
photo credit
daily post prompt: Dubious
Get Rid and Live
Once you get rid of the riffraff, the world is calm and beautiful.
I created this image by merging two of my paintings via photoshop.
daily word press prompt: via Riff
The World is More
Ah! What a delight
to open one’s eyes and discover
the world is more
than black and white.
painting by CD-W after Jean Siméon Chardin’s self portrait
daily photo prompt: Black
Deception of the Eye
We all know that our eyes can be deceptive. Most of the time, we see what we want to see … until someone points us toward the truth.
“No, that’s not possible,” I told my friend on our visit to Florence, Italy.
“Oh, my dear, but it is. They mastered it well during the Renaissance.”
“But it’s a sculpture.”
“Nope. It’s flush with the wall. It’s all paint.”
That’s when I realized I was a neophyte to the art of Trompe l’oeil.
Wikipedia: Trompe-l’œil (French for “deceive the eye”, pronounced [tʁɔ̃p lœj]) is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. Forced perspective is a comparable illusion in architecture.
I decided to give it a go, at least in small measures.
Thinking of Leonardo Da Vinci, I painted the image below (not the center man- he was truly glued on). The image is flat but I wanted to make the papers appear taped to a brick wall. The shadows around the papers add to the 3-D appearance.
Note: the words are written in Italian, backwards, like Da Vinci wrote. The envelope (from the man himself) says, “Dear Carolina, Maybe this helps!”
This one, The Helper, is one dimensional and has no real frame.
While I continue to be a neophyte in this department, today there are many great artists who can master this technique.
And, I still can’t decide which is better — a deceptive eye or the truth behind it. What I do know is this —
Magic Happens
photo credit one
photo credit two
photo credit three
daily word prompt: Neophyte
Turtle Woes
“After this, she’ll have to find another proxy. The job gives me a headache.”
Painting by CD-W
Daily word prompt: Proxy
When the Party’s Over
When the party’s over
where to go from here?
curl into a den of woe
and wait to disappear?
Breaths of life sustains me
when others fill my room
without their presence, the lonely heart
retreats within the womb
Why must I be so absent
in the carriage of myself
that I sit so idly dormant
on a dusty solo shelf
Do only I allow to see
myself through other’s eyes?
Surely there’s another way
than gowns that glamorize.
Risk anyway
It’s risky business, first learning to paint
being creative, letting go of restraint
who wouldn’t want to see two women chattin’
But maybe not Churchill
compressed in a wagon.
(a couple of my numerous early paintings)
daily word prompt: Risky
Try “Playing” Along even if it’s not on a keyboard
First Movement : I started taking piano lessons when my kids were young. It was, you know, one of those things you want to try. As it turned out, although I truly enjoyed making sounds on the piano, I never could manage to really play.
Second Movement: Before Ludwig Von Beethoven was completely deaf, he composed “Quasi una fantasia,” roughly translated as “almost a fantasy” but better known as Moonlight Sonata.
Third Movement: Around this time, I was also taking art lessons. I wanted to draw something other than stick figures. So, I tucked a bunch of art classes under my belt.
Fourth Movement: I watched a a movie about the great composer who left his estate to his “Immortal Beloved” – also the name of the film. I love this movie! Especially 2 particular scenes – the one at the end (you’ll have to watch), and the one where Beethoven, in his later years, plays Moonlight Sonata with his head rested on the piano so he can “feel” the notes.
Wrapping up this Composition:
So, I took a screen shot of that particular scene. (A great idea for practicing artists)
And made my own interpretation.
As I assumed all along, we can’t all be Beethoven’s.
But in our own ways, we can play along.
(Even if it’s a play on words)
