Art You Give Your Children

Today is Read Across America Day, held each year on the birthday of Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Geisel.   How wonderful is the art of our childhood....

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

And of course, don't forget Struwwelpeter from last week.  I got a number of emails from friends and family after that post, all saying how much they loved reading Struwwelpeter as kids.  One particularly funny note went: "We also read Struwwelpeter, it was totally engrossing and made you feel tingly and inordinately interested in matches."

Art? Or data? V&A Pattern, Part 4

Here's the last installment on the recently published four volume V&A Pattern book.  The final volume is entitled Digital Pioneers and invites you to look at the work done by the visionary artists who joined together with scientists and programmers to explore the artistic potential of computer technology.  I've made this one fun by putting in two pictures from my own scientific work.  Can you guess which ones they are?  They all click to enlarge.

  

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10.

1.  Manfred Mohr, P-122, 1972
2.  Aaron Marcus, Evolving Gravity, 1972
3.  Paul Brown, Untitled, 1975
4.  Jim Galasyn, LR04 Time Series, 2009
5.  Roman Verostko, Pathway Series, 1987
6.  Roman Verostko, Manchester Illuminated Universal Turing Machine, 1998
7.  AARON, a computer program written by Harold Cohen, 2003
8.  AARON, a computer program written by Harold Cohen, 2003
9.  Mark Wilson, PSC31, 2003
10.  Jim Galasyn, Poincare Section Solar Insolation, 2009

Did you guess?  Jim Galasyn analyzed and plotted my data on his blog here.  Here are the links to the previous V&A Pattern posts:

Mughal Empire Florals, part 1
The Fifties, part 2
William Morris, part 3

Let us honor Phillis Wheatley, 1753-1784

 

On the last day of Black History Month I want to share the story of Phillis Wheatley who I learned about from my niece yesterday.  Wheatley was kidnapped in Gambia at age 8 and by age 9 had been sold on the slavery block in Boston to a man named John Wheatley.  He named her Phillis after the ship that brought her to the Americas.  Phillis became the servant of his wife and she and his daughter taught Phillis to read and write, such that she was fully literate within a few years.  At fourteen she published her first poem and by the age of twenty had published a volume of poetry--she was the first African-American and second woman in the colonies to author a book.  It was published in England as the Boston publishers refused to have anything to do with her.  Even worse, she had to go to trial in Massachusetts and prove that she really was the author of the poems being read and lauded by the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire and others.

By the end of her twenties she was emancipated upon the death of her master, Wheatley, and she married a free black grocer who was eventually sent to debtor's prison.  She died in poverty and ill-health working as a scullery maid at age 31.  Her infant daughter died a few hours later. 

You can download a volume of her poetry at the Gutenburg Project.  Here is a poem inspired by her story:

Phillis Wheatley

Held back by iron
Bars of white
'Twas with a pen
That she did fight

She stuck her fingers
Through the cracks
The words shone bright
Though skin be black

O such tales of gore and grace
Bubbled out from deep within
Where people can't be judged
By the color of their skin

Holding on to the dreams
Of courage and laughter
She was remembered
For eons after

Boldly
She built elegant wings
Brick
By brick
By brick

by Kate W. (age 10)

 

Statue of  Phillis Wheatley on Commonwealth Ave., Boston

William Morris meets my artistic Aunt....

Result:  more pretty dresses!

 

 

I'm liking the winter outfit.   It might be time to order some fabric and fire up the sewing machine.  You can see more of Anne's work here.

Winter dreams and pretty dresses....

Today my "ant" Anne sent me the this pic, made from a photo I sent her in December and inspiration from the Snowflake Bentley post (can you see the little buddhas in the snowflakes?).  If it looks familiar it is....I will name these the "valentine series".   Anne suggested that I should turn my sights to designing house dresses made from William Morris fabrics (and also here)----how could the NYT style section not love that?  While fashion has never been my strong suit, I was reminded of a picture I took last year of myself and my friend Julia....

 

Julia has many pretty dresses....I love this pic of her matching the table cloth and the house-warming gifts she brought.

topping up leaky radiator in another sweet dress.....

continued experimentation on perfect macaroon recipe in another....

which of course provides actual real reason to wield machete -- always a good thing.

The wind and rain is howling outside.....I feel my seasonal affective disorder acting up!

Struwwelpeter and other sweet bedtime stories....

 

the cats cried!!!

the hare's revenge

the horror, the horror....

into the drink...

 

Shock-headed Peter...

stop your fidgeting!

I wonder if William Morris ever read Struwwelpeter to his two girls?  This German book, a family favorite during my childhood, was first published in English translation in 1848.  Did Jenny and May Morris pore over the pictures of poor Pauline who burnt herself into a tiny pile of ashes after playing with matches?  Or those of Little-Suck-a-Thumb who had his thumbs lopped of by the great-long-legged scissors man?  I can imagine Morris reading these stories with his booming dramatic voice (which I know he must have had!).

Morris wallpaper in real life....

Here are the Morris & Co. wallpaper books from my local hole-in-the-wall paint and paper store, Waltham Wallpaper and Paint.  They currently have six volumes and a new one is published by Sanderson each year.  You can tell from the duct tape they get a lot of use.  A double roll of Morris paper costs about $140 dollars and the books also include lots of matching fabrics.

 Fruit

I used Fruit in a small first floor bathroom in my last house.  Trim and beadboard wainscotting on lower half of room was painted Benjamin Moore Corinthian White.

 

This is Acorn (picture is from the wallpaper book).  I have always wanted to do a room with this pattern -- I love its subtlety.

 Acorn (detail)

Two more book examples.....an accent wall approach.

  

Windrush

  

Golden Lily (remember the dumpster?!)

  

Chrysanthemum in my dining room

  

 

 

Trim Benjamin Moore 925 semigloss, wall below chair rail C2 Outback in eggshell.

The dark side of the moon...

A map from the United States Geologic Survey. It reminds me of a Jackson Pollack painting.

The Morris Room, Victorian & Albert Museum

 

  

  

 

A collaboration between William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and Philip Webb completed in the 1860's.