Be Delighted

"Oh my my my my, what an eager little mind!"

Auntie Mame

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Living the Dream

I'm having a really good Autumn. It's my favorite time of the year anyway, but layered on top of that has just been two months of fabulousness. I just want to savor every part of it, this sense of elation, of being fully alive, of basking in the divine moments before they pass:

                          Our Fall Aster daisies, with bees and butterflies, humming with activity


It began with the Paul McCartney concert at the beginning of October. A lifelong dream fulfilled in three hours of glorious, moving, exhilarating entertainment from Sir Paul, radiating energy at age 72. So many of my friends in Lubbock were at the concert that it became a shared topic of conversation for weeks. Even yesterday when I went in for my annual physical exam, my Doctor saw I was wearing my concert shirt and we immediately swapped stories. Plus she told me not to lose any more weight for my height, so that was even better. I went home and had some chocolate.


Next up was our Fall Flatlands Dance Theatre concert, Encore!, in which each choreographer restaged a past popular dance by request. In my case it was my (I hope) humorous sheep dance called What the Flock? Some sheep were returning, other dancers were new, including a very pregnant Molly, which only added to the fun. Plus I got to revive all my horrible sheep puns to use in rehearsals. Ewe would be amazed how many jokes can be made about sheep. I wool share some with you. They tend to be very ba-a-a-a-a-d.


                                        Here Kyla demonstrates the refined art of Shwerking.
                   These promo photos were taken by my daughter, Naomi Hill, on the Texas Tech campus.
                                                     I reprised my role as the knitting granny.

 Next I attended a college reunion in Dallas with dear old friends, or old, dear friends as the case may be, from back in the early Seventies, the Sweathogs. We met for a glorious weekend, talked our heads off, created some wonderful food, and shared many memories. Of course, none of us had changed a bit. I was smiling for days and days afterwards.
                                                                               1972
1973
1976


                                                                          2014


                                                   I made my Mom's trifle recipe by request.

Immediately after that it was time for the annual Dia de los Muertos event, this time happening on October 31st, as it was a Friday. I had artwork in two separate places, including a display of prayer flags I made at the Buddy Holly Center.




And then the Artist Studio Tour, which was a fun way to exhibit and sell art, in selected homes, I even had my painting chosen for the cover of the brochure. A painting now owned by a friend in Idaho, after he saw the brochure on my Facebook page and called to tell me how much he responded to the work, that it gave him a sense of calm. What more could I ask for? Artists live to have people connect emotionally or intellectually to their work.

Winter Calling-2013
   Here are a couple more pieces I had in the show. The first one was only done last week and has sold.
                                                       
                                                                 Little Sparrow-2014

 Progression-2014

Next up, an article published in Quilting Arts magazine's upcoming December issue, and then a show in January for our group, the Caprock Art Quilters.

It's been a joy. I feel so grateful for all the wonderful experiences and the love of my friends.
                                                                       Namaste!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Gods and Monsters

Mary Shelley was a teenager when she read Milton's Paradise Lost. (I suppose I was too but obviously it was something I slogged through in English Lit with very little enthusiasm.) Mary Shelley was also a teenager when she wrote her masterpiece, Frankenstein. Nineteen years old.That is something a little harder to imagine because I was still writing bad poetry about love and other subjects I knew nothing about at that age.

This week I went to see a filmed version of the London stage play, Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. It was done in 2011 just as Benedict was about to become Sherlock on BBC, and Jonny a year later, would become Sherlock Holmes on CBS version, "Elementary".




It's no secret that Benedict Cumberbatch is my favorite actor, so my intentions on seeing this film were part fangirl and part artistic/intellectual interest. I was pleased to say that I was overwhelmingly impressed. So much so that I am returning tonight to see the same play with the lead roles reversed. Benedict as the Creature was a desperate, clumsy, drooling misfit, emotionally distraught, struggling to adapt, and yearning for love. He based his movements on people who had been damaged by stroke or struggling to walk after a severe injury. It will be interesting to compare Jonny Lee Miller in the same role.




Each actor learned both roles, that of The Creature, and of Dr. Frankenstein, then reversed the roles selectively. The Creature is obviously the more taxing role, physically and mentally. In London it was never announced who was playing what role so it was a gamble as to who you got to see flailing around naked on the stage for the first ten minutes of the play. (The filmed version had the Creature discreetly dressed in a loincloth, probably to spare the actors' male parts from being posted all over the internet.)


As a dancer I was entranced by the first ten minutes. A strange barren set appears with a drum-like womb and a hand pressed against it from the inside like a baby about to be born.

 The Creature emerges from an opening in the fabric and literally flounders helpless for minutes on end before staggering to walk. He flops in grass and chews on it like a goat, he revels in the sunlight and the rain. This is all performed like a strange and alien modern dance to a dissonant soundtrack.  No words, no back story or explanation. He is alone. Until he finds his creator who reacts in horror and repulsion. His creator rejects the thing he has created because it is too hideous.



An image of Jonny in the role.

So begins the inexorable tragedy of the story. The Creature, abused and neglected, believes himself a monster, cut off from his father figure and shunned as an outcast by humans. Though taught to think and read by a kindly blind man, (including being able to recite from Milton's Paradise Lost) he is once again rejected and driven away by the man's terrified family, and so turns to murder and revenge. He becomes the Monster.

But the play also asks who the real monster is. Dr. Frankenstein comes across as a man detached from his feelings. He is engaged to Elizabeth but ignores her and repeatedly postpones the wedding. He drives out the Creature with no regard for the consequences then spends his life in fear of its return. Yet when the creature finds him and begs him to create a woman for him, an Eve to his Adam, Frankenstein's ego drives him to replicate his experiment. His Eve turns out to be beautiful, almost perfect.

 But then in a shocking scene he destroys his lovely Eve, envisioning a scenario where the creatures might breed, because his own Creature has learned to feel love and passion, and could bring more monsters in the world. This sends the Creature on a path of murderous revenge. A path that causes him to rape and murder Frankenstein's fiance, Elizabeth, after she shows him kindness and compassion, the first he has felt since the blind, old man. His chilling line after she touches him and is not repulsed, "I too have learned to lie", followed by: "I am so deeply sorry, Elizabeth" caused the audience to freeze in horror. But he has set his path. He will kill Frankenstein's love, just as Frankenstein killed his. An eye for an eye.



The book, and play, ask all the grand questions. Who are we? Who created us? Why have they turned us out of Paradise and abandoned us? What is evil? Is it learned or carried within us? It also brings in  the ethics of Science. Should we tamper with creation, as we now do with cloning? Do those creations have souls? In the end has the Creature become more human than his creator, capable of deep feelings of love and profound hatred. While Frankenstein, attempting to be God, has turned his back on human feelings and has perverted Nature.


The final scene, where Frankenstein chases the Creature far north into the arctic wasteland, finds them both forever connected and fated to die together in a barren, frozen hell.



Monday, October 27, 2014

The skull beneath the skin.

It's almost Halloween. I have a number of art shows coming up, one related to the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), which follows Halloween and All Saints Day. Here then are a few of my works past and present related to the topic. It involves a lot of skulls: