Last weekend was Francoise’s senior prom. Prom is all about the dress (I know it’s not). I thought prom was at the end of the month but daughter reminded me a fortnight ago that it wasn’t. Fortunately for me I found someone to trade with to make her gown (in return for her services I will do a shoot with her). This is what we came up with.
especially when you’re not the one sitting AP exams. Nope, I got better things to do. Like lie under a tree and look up at the sky while I try to forget what to cook for dinner tonight. Other news: We finally chose a stain colour. But really, choosing what colour stain to stain the deck should not take 12 months. Mea culpa.
and lots of things have happened since last time I wrote in this space too. For one, our oldest daughter is about to graduate from high school. She applied to 12 colleges; got accepted to eight and got waitlisted to two. She made her decision a day before May 1st (the cutoff date), choosing Agnes Scott College in Atlanta Georgia just in time to stress about something else. Her AP exams. Life is good.
This is a post from two years ago that I entered for a self portrait challenge on the topic red. We were asked to take a pic of ourselves wearing red but I thought I would share a pic of someone else in red instead.
Nativity by Carl Bloch.
Here’s a painting that will debunk the usual sterotypes of women who wear the colour red. In nearly every painting that I have seen of Mary, she is either wearing a white dress or painted wearing a red robe. Interestingly enough red was not only sought after by painters throughout history, it was also a colour worn by those of high status. Purple was worn by those of high status in antiquity too but as interesting as that is, purple was not the colour used to depict this royal family, but red. While we usually associate white with purity and red with sin, red was the classical representation used in many religious paintings to symbolise faith, fulfillment and love. In this painting by Carl Bloch, I love the way Joseph tilts his head to the side (evident of a father’s love and one that I have seen in many fathers when proudly showing off their newborns!). I also love how his hands shield the glow of his lantern from the eyes of his newborn. The glow that surrounds the baby Jesus however does not seem to come from the lantern but from the child Himself. In fact this light is so bright that it not only surrounds the holy child, it envelopes all in the scene too even if you cannot see them all. But the star of this scene is definitely Mary. In this painting she is the only person not looking at the child; she is looking at us looking at this scene. If I hadn’t known what it’s like to go through labour, give birth and raise children, I would know that look to be one of exhaustion (she can’t wait for all those men to go home so she can take a nap). But in that look is also one of womanhood and of nobility because while the child will grow to be the Saviour of the world, Carl has painted us woman; saviour of human souls. (more…)