P is for Persephone...and Apparently, Long Winters

 "Be to her, Persephone,

All the things I might not be;

Take her head upon your knee.

She that was so proud and wild,

Flippant, arrogant and free,

She that had no need of me,

Is a little lonely child

Lost in Hell,—Persephone,

Take her head upon your knee;

Say to her, “My dear, my dear,

It is not so dreadful here."

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Back in January, I began the One Page a Day Challenge and immediately threw away my quill.  Now in April, I’m participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge and prepping for a Wilderness Writers’ Retreat.  I need ink, a stiff drink and therapy.

A

nother sad midnight and I ain’t got no…words of wisdom.

And Sam Cooke is just shaking his head up in Rock and Roll heaven.

Ah well, you can’t win them all!

I’m hoping that all the ham, stuffing, green beans, latkes, cabbage, spinach, butter, and biscuits (what?  We’re a Southern-Eastern European household!) will inspire some great prose for next week’s post. 

While we all wait for that glorious pot to boil, here is another painting that is a favorite of mine.

P is for Persephone

And not just a favorite piece of art, but a favorite Greek myth as well.  I love all the Greek and Roman myths.  We studied them in middle school.  And I love how modern writers have immersed themselves in these ancient stories, and breathed new life into them. 

What a beautiful way to inspire getting to know history and a past culture.

Proserpine, 1874, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Prosepine is the Roman version of Persephone

Although Waterhouse is by far my favorite PR Brother (shhh, don’t tell the others), Rossetti is a close second.  Here, he captures the essence of Persephone’s story ~ she looks as if she is turning slightly back, away from the light, facing the Underworld, and she clasps a partially eaten pomegranate, thus ensuring that she has to stay with Hades a third of the year.  During this time, her mother Demeter mourns her absence by forbidding all vegetation from growing.

Given this winter we’ve had, I’d say Persephone partied too hardy with Hades and is only now staggering out from the Underworld.

And since we had two days of balmy weather followed by two days of freezing temperatures, I’d say that is one heck of a hangover.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

I was going to make a snarky remark about kill joys who sniff and turn their noses up at ancient stories and myths.  But it’s Good Friday.  You’re welcome.

Sapphire Even Day Blog Challenge Day 1: What's in a (Blog) Name?

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

 ~Audre Lorde

In September, I’m participating in the Sapphire Even Day Blogging Challenge  and the Two Pages-A-Day Writing Challenge. 

W

elcome readers, both new and loyal!  If you are just joining us via the Sapphire or Two Pages Challenges, then a double welcome! 

What’s in a name?

Kimberly’s writing prompt for today was to introduce ourselves and our blog.  For the what, check out my intro post from June to find out what it’s all about Alfie here at La Belle.  For the who, check out my About Me blurb.  As for the blog name, well, you’re the first person to ask!

John Keats – The Words

If you’ve tooled around the blog for any length of time, one thing should hopefully become obvious: I am bewitched by beauty.  Sometimes it is in the form of food (especially dinner parties); sometimes it takes the form of music (I sing and play piano); sometimes it is visual (paintings, sculpture); but most often is takes the form of words.  I am a writer after all, and the beautiful play of words on a page thrills me like nothing else can.

If I’m really lucky, both word and art are married perfectly.  That is where the name of my blog comes in.

There is a poem by John Keats, entitled La Belle Dame Sans Merci, which means, The Beautiful Lady without Mercy:

I met a lady in the meads,

  Full beautiful—a faery’s child,   

Her hair was long, her foot was light,             

  And her eyes were wild.  

I made a garland for her head,     

  And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;  

She look’d at me as she did love, 

  And made sweet moan.           

I set her on my pacing steed,        

  And nothing else saw all day long,        

For sidelong would she bend, and sing  

  A faery’s song.       

She found me roots of relish sweet,              

  And honey wild, and manna dew,         

And sure in language strange she said—           

  “I love thee true.” 

She took me to her elfin grot,      

  And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,                  

And there I shut her wild wild eyes        

  With kisses four.  

And there she lulled me asleep,  

  And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! 

The latest dream I ever dream’d         

  On the cold hill’s side.     

I saw pale kings and princes too, 

  Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;          

They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci

  Hath thee in thrall!”

For the entire poem, visit this page.

Image Credit: ArtMagick

The PRB – The Art

I’m not the only one who loved Keats’ poem.  An incredible group of young men who were painters, sculptors, and poets loved it too.  I’ve written about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood before and even had the privilege of attending an exhibit of some of their original works at the National Gallery.  Two words: brilliant and swoon-worthy.  That is all.

The painting that is my avatar is my favorite of all PRB paintings.  Sir Frank Dicksee was born (1853) after the PRB was founded (1848).  But his work was influenced by the PRB, with rich, saturated colours, and medieval, romantic themes.

The Name

If you notice, however, the name of my blog is off by one word: sans  ~ without ~ is missing and in its place is de  ~ of/with.  La Belle ~ the Beautiful ~ is important here.  But Merci ~ Mercy ~ is essential.  Without mercy, love becomes conditional, faith becomes blind, hope is lost, and beauty becomes tarnished.  And that is not what I am about.

No one is perfect (how boring would that be!?), but I strive to have a heart that is unconditional, a faith that is open, a hope that serves, and a beauty that welcomes. Hence, The Beautiful Lady of/with Mercy.

As for La Belle’s motto, the Latin translates as: “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”  It doesn’t get more romantic and unconditional than that!

So, again, welcome  ~ I do hope you will sit and stay awhile.  The teapot is always on, the bookshelves are always overflowing, and the conversation is always entertaining.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

I cannot wait to meet new writerly friends!  Please introduce yourselves and your blogs!

Top Five Friday: Pre-Raphaelite Exhibit at the NGA (or, now I can die happy)

It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet. 
~ Kojiro Tomita

I

can die happy now.

Last Friday afternoon I spent over an hour with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  The National Gallery of Art was hosting an exhibition of some of the major pieces from the PRB, including a couple of busts and statues from the only sculptor in the group.

Faithful readers know my PRB obsession well.  But I have to say, there is nothing like seeing the original works up close and personal.  The colours are brighter, the brush strokes visible, the talent of the artists more apparent.  I own several prints, but was amazed at seeing how large some of my favorite paintings are in person. 

Mariana – John Everett Millias

For the PRB, poetry was just as important as paint colour, and Tennyson was a perennial favorite.  In Mariana (1851), Millias portrayed Tennyson’s heroine waiting in vain for her lover:

but most she loathed the hour

When the thick-moted sunbeam lay

Athwart the chambers, and the day

Was sloping toward his western bower.

Then said she, 'I am very dreary,

He will not come,' she said;

She wept, 'I am aweary, aweary,

O God, that I were dead!'

 

Isabella and the Pot of Basil – William Holman Hunt

Another painting inspired by poetry, this time, Keats’ Isabella, or The Pot of Basil.  This painting was in the next to last room of the exhibit and is larger then life.  Too bad they didn’t put a bench in there ~ I could have sat before this masterpiece for another hour. 

FAIR Isabel, poor simple Isabel! 

  Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love’s eye! 

They could not in the self-same mansion dwell 

  Without some stir of heart, some malady; 

They could not sit at meals but feel how well        

  It soothed each to be the other by; 

They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep 

But to each other dream, and nightly weep.

The Salutation of Beatrice – Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Not only are the colours striking ~ a given with almost all PRB works ~ but the size of the piece also adds to its mesmerizing quality.  Rossetti painted it on two cupboard doors and gave it to William and Jane Morris as a wedding gift.  He later took it back (before or after he and Jane became lovers?) and sold them.  I took one look and wished I were the new owner.

These panels are based on Dante’s The Divine Comedy and show Dante with Beatrice as she was on earth, and as he imagined her in Paradiso.  Fitting, given the painter's name derives from the poet. 

From that most holy wave I now returned

to Beatrice; remade, as new trees are

renewed when they bring forth new boughs, I was

pure and prepared to climb unto the stars.

 

 

A close up of the ray of light.  It almost felt like I could touch it and feel the warmth of the sun.

The Awakening Conscience – William Holman Hunt

“Whited sepulchers” is an apt description of Victorian society: very careful outward shows of piety and manners, but inside, as immoral as the cads and loose women they publically disdained.   Mistresses were quite common, but not never spoken of ~ that would be rude!  So Hunt’s portrayal of a mistress finally coming to grips with the shame of her hidden life caused a public outcry.

This painting is the only one of the five that wasn’t inspired by poetry.

 But what struck me was the way the artist was able to paint a ray of light illuminating a corner of the room.  It so fascinated me that I had to put my face right up to the painting to better see the brush strokes.  From a distance, it looked like real sunlight pouring over the canvas.

The Rock of Doom – Edward Burne-Jones

Greek and Roman mythology also fired the romantic PRB imagination.  This is one of three canvases Burne-Jones painted of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from Medusa.  Again, I was amazed at how large the canvases were.  I literally couldn’t breathe in that room, they were so beautiful.

The poem that inspired these paintings was William Morris’ “The Doom of King Acrisius” from The Earthly Paradise: 

He lighted down, and toward the place he drew,

And made invisible by Pallas' aid,

He came within the scarped cliff's purple shade,

And found a woman standing lonely there,

Naked, except for tresses of her hair

That o'er her white limbs by the breeze were wound,

And brazen chains her weary arms that bound

Unto the sea-beat overhanging rock,

As though her golden-crowned head to mock.

But nigh her feet upon the sand there lay

Rich raiment that had covered her that day,

Worthy to be the ransom of a king,

Unworthy round such loveliness to cling. . . .

 

 Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What art exhibits have you visited recently?

For the Love of Quirkiness: Artist Stereotypes

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. 

~ Stella Adler

C

arolyn Henderson over at Fine Art Views wrote such a great article today on artists that I chose to highlight it.  She points out that the stereotype of the artist (“neurotic, insecure, off balance, and strangely disquieting”) is far from the truth.

“Oh look, it’s an artist,” I always helpfully point out to the Norwegian Artist – one of the most stable, practical, logical, and analytical people I know. “Unkempt hair, vacant yet wild eyes, disjointed thoughts and unintelligible speech – should he really be left alone in a room full of paint?”

Love it. 

She goes on to encourage artists by listing six ways they are tough yet sensitive souls who add so much light and beauty to a ugly, dingy world. You can read her full article here.

Now, I don’t paint.  I’ve already talked about why.  But I write, sing, play piano, etc.  And I cannot tell you how many times my art has been dismissively appreciated: “Oh that’s nice, dear.  And what do you do?”

Because of this, I am too shy and insecure to believe I could ever support myself with any of my artistic talents.  So I have a day job that pays the bills and afford me time and money time to pursue beauty.  But deep down inside, I would rather be composing, singing, writing, art-ing full time.



The Bower Meadow, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

How can anyone look at the painting to the right and think that it was a waste of time?  I mean, I am sure Rossetti would have had a much more comfortable life if he had been an accountant or an engineer!

I have been different at times, unconventional maybe, ok, quirky even! But I have never been boring.  And honey, I would rather be exciting and poor then boring and rich!!

It is difficult enough to endure boring people at the dinner table, but to actually be one?!  Perish the thought.

Now go forth and be exciting, you Bruce Adrian Willis Brody, you!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Are you an artist?  If so, do you support yourself with your art?  How do you deal with negativity?