Artist Spotlight - Paula Rego

After nearly five years of blogging about art (with a few other things thrown in), I've finally come to a place where I'm comfortable with what and when to post. There have been many times when I've posted something just for the sake of posting something. Not that I felt those posts were insincere or irrelevant, just that I tried too hard to come up with something simply to give The Pagan Sphinx another breath in those times when I thought that perhaps I was done with it. I will probably continue to post quickies and assorted silliness now and then, though unattached to a particular schedule.

One of the ways I caged myself into posting was with regular weekly features such as The Friday Evening Nudes, creating a sort of obligation for myself that I provide a post every Friday evening. What hit me suddenly today when I found the work of Paula Rego was that the art has to crash upon me like a ton of bricks; leaving me no choice but to delve deliciously into image after image, selecting them like a kid chooses candy in a sweet shop.  If the reason for the post is my furious intensity with the subject, sharing it with you and enjoying your responses are often the height of the experience.

I began this post at 8:00 a.m. Sunday and worked on it off and on for the next three hours, stopping to get ready to meet a friend for lunch, coming home to give a small birthday party for my step-daughter's 28th birthday and resuming the compiling of this post. It's finally done and in creating it, I realized that I'm still not happy with it because there are things I left out in the interest of both time and an attempt to shorten the post itself.  I worry about having too much in a post that people don't have the time for. In any event, I hope you like the post, even if some of you may not have the time or inclination to read it, you may enjoy looking at the images and drawing your own conclusions.

Thank you for visiting.

All the love,

~ Gina

Paula Rego

Born in Lisbon, Portugal

1935

Paula Rego in front of one of her paintings in the museum Casa das Histórias honoring her and her work.
Cascais, Portugal

Paula Rego's work reminds me of several other artists all at once. There is, in some earlier pieces, an element of Hopper. In others it's the influence of Picasso. There is more than a touch of Surrealism. Rego in fact used the Surrealist method of "automatic drawing" to create some of her earlier works.

   Rego is not afraid to tackle morose and even grotesque subject matter, at times delving  deeply into the taboos that frighten us the most. If tragedy can be beautiful as well as painful, Paula Rego can paint it in a way that feels completely genuine. Her intellectual and psychic preoccupations make us look deeper into ourselves. At least that is how I'm viewing her works overall, after having perused probably every image I've discovered to research this piece. 

It's a shame that while I was in Lisbon this summer, I was not able to get away from family priorities to visit Casa das Historias, the museum erected in her honor in 2009. The museum was designed by Portuguese architect Edwardo Souta de Moura. The red concrete of the building reminds me of the red clay tiles of Portuguese rooftops. Against the sky and trees, the architecture blends in well with its surroundings. A visit there is definitely planned for a future visit to Portugal. 

A Brief Biography

Paula Rego was born in Lisbon in 1935. Her father, an engineer, was relocated in 1936 to Britain  by the company he worked for. He and his wife left Paula to be raised by her grandmother until 1939. She grew up in a liberal family during the Salazar regime. Her parents were devout Anglophiles and Paula attended what was then the only English school in Portugal. In the 1950's, Paula's father encouraged her to attend The Slade School of Fine Art in London where she met her future husband Victor Willing, also an artist, whom she married in 1959.

Dividing her time between Portugal and London in the 1960's, Rego settled permanently in London in 1976. She continued to visit her childhood home in Ericeira, Portugal the home that was often depicted in Rego's paintings. When her husband became ill with multiple sclerosis, his nurse, a woman of Portuguese descent was to become Rego's favorite model.

Paula Rego's work began receiving important recognition somewhere after the 1990's in English, Portuguese and worldwide art circles. She began receiving many invitations by galleries and museums to produce work which she regularly took part in curating. In 1990, she was appointed the first Associated Artist of the National Gallery in London.

She lives and works in London and is represented by the Marleborough Gallery.

The Works of Paula Rego

(With Interpretative Details)

Salazar Coughing Up The Homeland
1960

The Fitting

 1989

 Rego's paintings speak in an unmistakably female voice; one that sometimes looks deceiving at first glance but that eventually turns up messages through symbolic details. It is always a complex picture; its meaning purposefully or inadvertently masked. There are stories in these paintings, told from different points of view, with mind-bending configurations, such as the sitting figure in the image below - the head  of a mustached man with a stocky,   womanish body.

 The Maids

1987

The above is a fascinating image. Its creation was inspired by the play The Maids by Jean Genet, which itself was based upon a real life event of two sisters Lea and Christine Papin, who brutally murdered their mistress and her daughter in Le Mans, France in 1933.  

The sitting figure of the employer suggests that there may have been dark family secrets in their employer's home that the maids were very much aware of.

The Policeman's Daughter
1987

In the late 1980's Rego created a series of paintings exploring complex and often dysfunctional family relationships, particularly father-daughter relationships. 

Departure
1980's

"When I start a picture I have an idea in mind, but I'm also trying to find out things for myself; I want to know what a picture will tell me. Sometimes it won't be until years later that I will look at a painting and realise what I was trying to do."

Snow White Playing With her Father's Trophies

In Snow White Playing With her Father's Trophies, Rego uses familiar fairytale themes and injects them with specific childhood memories, creating a sort of dysfunctional folklore all her own. The white dress, the  mounted buck's head between her legs and the jealous stepmother depicted as a fetish-like ornament in the background create a mysterious story containing both familiar and puzzling elements. 

Rego herself  rejects sexual interpretations of her work, saying that she often doesn't fully recognize the meaning of certain objects she paints into a picture until long after she's completed a painting.

Angel
1990

Paula Rego's women are frequently depicted as violent and beast-like and go against the grain of idealized womanhood. 


"I never portray women as victims in my pictures, mainly because I have never felt like one. Although I can sympathize with a man's position, or with his anguish, I just can't identify with it in the same way. But all women are alike, really." 

The Dancing Ostriches Series

"I've needed an impulse from within, a lot of emotional energy to do this stuff, and a kind of desire. It's a very aggressive thing... It's not an aggression like you're hitting it; it's a sensual aggression, if you like."

 Celestina's House

2000

"If there are seven ages of woman, as of man, then my Celestina has lived through at least thirteen."

O Embaixador de Jesus

1997

Entre As Mulheres 

(Enter The Women)

"To find one's way anywhere one has to find one's door, just like Alice, you see. You take too much of one thing and you get too big, then you take too much of another and you get too small. You've got to find your own doorway into things..."

Flight

Paintings from 2000 to 2010

Most of what I've read in my research on Paula Rego focuses on her paintings of the 1980's and there is enough written about them. I found little information about her more current works. I haven't quite digested them and, to be honest, they don't have nearly the same impact on me as the paintings I began the post with. 

As the century turned, some of  Rego's works became increasingly more frightening, depicting scenes of infanticide, rape and abortion, among other horrors. The Red Monkey series from the 80's was grotesquely comical but these later paintings seem to me to take themselves too seriously, causing me to turn away but not really feel anything. I've chosen to keep those out of the post because even as I find them strangely fascinating, I don't particularly like them. Unlike the works of Frida Kahlo, expressing  similar themes, Rego's more disturbing works from the 2000's lack the conviction and personal tragedy that make Khalo's paintings so enduring. If you'd like to check them out, click this link.



The images that follow are ones from 2000 to around 2010 that to my interpretations, feel most truthful.  I leave you to your own  interpretations of the following. I believe Dame Paula Rego would approve!

Pieta

from the Virgin Mary Series

2002 

The Cake Woman

2004

The Shakespeare Room

2006

 The Cigarette

2006

Steering the Boat

2009-10

(etching)

The Doll's Playground

2009-10

Sources

Guardian Interview with Paula Rego

University of Cambridge, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies

The Telegraph - Fear Factor

Secret Histories - The Guardian

Paula Rego webpage

Marlborough Gallery, UK

Wikipedia 

Artist Spotlight: Stanley Spencer

Sir Stanley Spencer 
(1891-1959)

Note to followers:  With this post, I've departed from my usual style of publishing only a lot of a particular artist's works, links to biographical information, articles and exhibitions. I found Spencer's biography so fascinating, that I compiled a write-up based on pieces of his life I garnered from several sources. I'd like your honest feedback on whether you find this too cumbersome or if you enjoyed it and would like to see more biographical information in future Artist Spotlight features.

Self-portrait

Stanley Spencer was born and spent much of his life in Cookham in Berkshire. When Spencer was seventeen, he enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art. So profound was his attachment to his hometown that most days he traveled by train back home in time for tea.


" When I left the Slade and went back to Cookham, Stanley wrote, I entered a kind of earthly paradise. Everything seemed fresh and to belong to the morning. My ideas were beginning to unfold in fine order when along comes the war and smashes everything."
~Stanley Spencer


In 1915, Spencer volunteered with the Royal Army Medical Corps and worked as an orderly at the Beaufort War Hospital. In 1916, the 24 year old Spencer volunteered to serve with the RAMC in Macedonia and served with the 68th Field Ambulance Unit. He subsequently volunteered to be transferred to the Berkshire Regiment. His survival of the devastation and torment that killed so many of those around him greatly influenced his attitude toward life and death and imprinted itself in the work that was to come.

Further influencing his work was his experience toward the end of The Great War, when he was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee. One of the paintings resulting from that commission was Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, the obvious influence of his work with the medical corps.




In a letter written in 1917, Spencer wrote:

"I do anything for these men. I cannot refuse them anything, and they love me to make drawings of photos of their wives and children or a brother who had been killed."

A private commission, The Resurrection of the Soldiers which was to become the alter piece of the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere, as a memorial to a dead soldier by his family. It would also be the place that housed most of Spencer's war paintings. He  worked on this painting from between 1926-28.


The painting is the eccentric Spencer's view of what happened to the fallen when they reached the heavens, depicting virtually no religious imagery other than the many crosses and one small figure of Christ behind a soldier, submerged beneath the crosses. It may be difficult to see in the image to the right. 

Soldiers Washing, 1927

Stanley Spencer, one of the great visionary artists of the 20th century is considered by some art critics as possibly the most important modernist painter of the century. And yet, he is virtually unknown in North America. Almost all of his paintings are housed in museums in the United Kingdom or are in private collections.

Portrait of Hilda

As a person, Spencer was as eccentric as his work. After the wars, he was seen out and about in Cookham wearing pajamas under his coat in cold weather. Shaggy-haired and frumpy, he would push a pram containing his easel and art supplies through the village.  He was known as an outgoing and spirited man, with twinkling eyes and a vision for the unexpected within the ordinary.



In 1925, Spencer married Hilda Carline, a fellow artist at The Slade. They had two daughters. Hilda was the most important figure in Spencer's life. She embodied for him everything that was essential in life and love. Circumstances in Hilda's family took her away from her husband for long stretches of time and
in 1929, Spender met and became infatuated with artist Patricia Preece.  His wife divorced him in 1937 and four months after the divorce, Spencer married Patricia. The couple never lived together and the marriage was never consummated. Patricia continued to live with her partner and lover Dorothy Hepworth despite repeated requests from Spencer for a ménage à trois. Patricia was Spencer's muse and would often pose nude for him. Throughout their relationship, Spencer lavished Patricia with expensive gifts and money. Their relationship eventually fell apart, though Patricia refused to grant Spencer a divorce. The pain Spencer caused his first wife Hilda, was to be the source of great regret for Spencer, who continued to visit her until her death from cancer, as a way of making amends for how he had treated her.

From left to right:  Dorothy Hepworth, Patricia Peerce, Stanley Spencer on Preece and Spencer's wedding day.

Patricia Peerce

Self-portrait with Patricia

Patricia

Portrait of Patricia Peerce

Stanley Spencer Gallery

Country Girl
1929

Domestic Scenes
 1936

Hilda Welcomed
1953

The Bathing Pool
1957

SOURCES

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTspencer.htm

The Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cockham, England

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/feature-2001-09.html

Stanley Spencer Homepage

Guardian article

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/holmes/holmes4-16-01.asp

Fourth Blog Birthday, Depression and More

I almost let this fourth birthday of The Pagan Sphinx blog go by without acknowledgement. I don't know where my head is these days! Quite literally, in fact. More on that later.

I just went through and cleaned out some hundreds of spam comments manually, as I don't know of any other way to do it. Those were left on the blog before I began the pre-approval of comments. I've recently dealt with another jag of them. Though this time I screened them out, it was a bit of a bitch and I may begin to have to employ comment verification as well. I hope you will forgive the inconvenience. It's those Friday evening nudes that attract the most attention from the pornographers, so as long as I'm posting those, I can probably be guaranteed at least occasional spam.

While doing this housecleaning, I realized that it was four years ago around this time that I started this blog; during a February recess from school and with trepidation of what I might be getting myself into. The only thing I knew about blogging is that my ex-husband and good friend The Cunning Runt had a blog on which he was publishing not only his wonderful photographs but also some excellent political commentary. I began to read it and thought what a rewarding idea it might be to share my passion for art and a few formative topics with the blogging world.

My first post was nothing. Just a sort of meek shout out and included a photograph of the view of the river from my front yard. The first person to comment was a lady who then went by the name of DCup and has since grown into her own as a very creative and even more popular blogger - Lisa of That's Why and Politits. Thanks, Lisa for that first comment. Without it I would have probably retreated from blogging, immediately calling it unsuccessful.

 For me, sharing anything with a wide audience causes a bit of panic and any excuse not to do so is always a handy reason  not to. That isn't to say I completely eschew getting personal. I sometimes do but for the most part I do it through comments where it is hoped that it'll sneak by without too much attention. Overall, though, I'd say I'm a fairly private person. I think this is because I am an introvert and one of our characteristics is that we love people but...only a select few at one time. :-)

So here I am, still. I have received (I'm not sure if that includes the spam or not) 9,300 comments and I just noticed that my 200th follower just joined (though I'm not always sure if most of them ever come back!) I like those nice, round numbers. I still love blogging, mostly for the people I've met both literally and virtually. My passion and labor of love for The Pagan Sphinx has grown into a more mature relationship. The honeymoon phase lasted a lot longer than I ever expected it to but it has settled into a calmer place. It helps me to view it that way, as it was beginning to feel like the end of a relationship. I'm very grateful and happy that I didn't give up on it so easily.

Perhaps this next topic should be a separate post but since I don't often have the guts to sit down and actually write anything, I think I should continue just in case the temptation to quit because it's hard gets the better of me. It is private and difficult for me to write about this but I have to in spite of myself, as depression needs to be talked about more openly and I am seeing inroads in that direction socially. I want to be a part of that direction. I've not kept my depression a secret but I haven't exactly written about it openly either. Mostly because this blog was never meant to be this personal. I am usually reticent to get into personal issues that people may either shy away from or feel pressure to respond to. Then there are my own feelings of vulnerability when I do share openly about my life to a wide audience.

Since childhood, I have a type of depression that is referred to as dysthymia.  I know first-hand how it runs in families as I grew up with a father who struggled with it. I believe my brother does, though he has never discussed it with me. Luckily, I don't have another (or co-morbid) condition like anxiety and substance abuse and neither do any of the people in my family who have this type of depression. Medications often do not work as well for dysthymia as they do for major depression. It also may take longer after starting medication for you to feel better. I know about this first-hand as well.

What is most difficult about dysthymia is that on top of this already low mood, major depressive disorder can set in and it has with me, on at least two other occasions in my life. Once in the 80's and once in the 90's. I'm afraid that I believe to either be in a particularly bad phase of dysthymic depression or perhaps even on the verge of a major depressive episode. I have never been so bad as to be hospitalized but the problems that a major depressive episode cause me are fairly far reaching - work, relationships, lethargy, boredom, crying jags, loss of sleep and even a drop in appetite.  The later I haven't seen for some time now, being in a phase of less than ideal weight since my mid-40's. But it used to be that I could shed twenty pounds ( 9 or so kg) in a month's time when I was in the throes of depression.Very unhealthy, wouldn't you agree? The only good thing about it  is that I secretly liked being thin and so did, not so secretly, my ex. (CR - if you read this, I don't mean that in a nasty way and it could very well have been my perception more than anything you actually ever said or did to make me feel that way. Please believe that.)

So here I am. I've been avoiding telling my family so as not to worry them. I'm still undecided as to if I should. My brother might serve me my head on a platter for burdening my mother with it, as he believes with absolute faith that she cannot handle it. I don't think I agree with him but just in case he's right, I'm not telling my mother. I usually link these posts to facebook and that's either not happening or will be posted to a selected audience.

I have been avoiding believing I'm really depressed again for over a year now. It's hard to admit once again feeling defeated by this illness. Therapy is a very gut-wrenching, emotionally and psychically exhausting process. But I finally did it. I made an appointment with my former therapist. It took me a long time to find her five years back, so when I called today, I was relieved that she was still in the area and had a slot available for me. The process I went through to find her, if I were to go into detail, would boggle your mind. There are so many unhappy, over-worked, incompetent therapists of various stripes, at least here in the U.S. Some I would even say could be damaging. I went through therapists like one goes through socks. I finally tried weeding them out by credentials and went for what was suggested to me by people I know in the field of mental health - start only with those therapists who have a ph.d in psychology. Some with clinical masters of social work are also very good. Bingo, it took only one other therapist before her, who seemed very capable but I detected a bad fit, before I found Dr. S.  She is a gifted therapist, kind and warm without sacrifice to boundaries and she has a beautiful office in downtown Northampton, Mass. where after a session I can either hole up in my favorite cafe and ruminate on my session or even walk up the road to Smith College's art museum and hang with the art. Perhaps near a Munch.  :-)

The piece of my treatment I am dreading the most is probably needing to see a psychiatrist for a medication re-evaluation, as my doctor won't up my current dose, saying it's already "hefty" enough and I may need to try another medication. Oh, joy.

I have had many dealings with various shrinks, too. My experiences have largely been negative. Here in the states, unless you are wealthy, there is no such thing an a psychiatrist who is also an analyst. Mostly, they prescribe medication; often one on top of another, on top of another. They are alchemists of sorts. I can think of five right off the top of my head (some were my daughter's doctors) who all shared similar characteristics:  cold detachment, indifference and let's hurry up and figure out how to set you right, with what pills and don't you dare come in here and try to be part of your own treatment plan. I'm going in with the mindset that I don't have to tell this person anything about myself other than what I've been diagnosed with and what the symptoms are.

Many things are wrong in life right now - work is not going well and I am having significant relationship issues. No outward drama, which is not my style nor his. But these issues are taking their toll on us both and we need to figure something out. What that will be, I'm not sure yet.  As for work, my concentration is off and it's been noticed. Lots to deal with right now.

Thanks for reading. Okay. I'm hitting the publish button now...

Hiatus (with a new note)

The Pagan Sphinx blog will be on hiatus for an indefinite amount of time. 

I am still in the process of trying to figure out what to do about the blog; whether to just post random updates, facebook style, create the very occasional but substantial art post or put The Pagan Sphinx completely to rest after its three year plus lifespan.  

Going over the stats for the blog recently, I saw that there are hundreds of page views daily, mostly driven here by google searches for images and artists, I"m sure. I've even received a handful of thank yous from people kind enough to let me know they had used the blog for educational purposes. I even received a comment telling me I "suck" because nothing on my blog helped with a term paper.  :-)

I really should look seriously into wordpress or some other blog format that is more conducive to posting large images and which doesn't generate the constant headaches I face on blogger; everything from trouble uploading photos to issues with text spacing. 

The upshot is that I may post something occasionally, especially for the handful of people who have actually cared enough to keep in touch during the hiatus. You know who you are and I thank you deeply for your interest, your friendship and your kindness. 

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.

  ~ Dalai Lama

Wishing you peace and love in the interim

If you'd like to keep in touch, drop me a line, a link or an entire novel at pagansphinx@gmail.com

Goodbye Lucian Freud

Hello, my blogging friends!

I've been back physically since late Wednesday morning but not quite back into my homebody routines! The heat wave in New England, combined with the hot and heavy breathing of my ancient Dell laptop Darth, have made for a slow transition back to blogging.

As far as our trip to Amsterdam, we had a great time but it always takes me a while to fully digest any transcontinental vacation I take to a place for the first time. I have a ton of photos. If you're interested and are not already on facebook, email me and I'll send you a link to the album there. pagansphinx@gmail.com. Otherwise, I will post a few choice photos in future posts. When it's not so hot and Darth is less lusty. ;-)

Love, love, love,

G

For now, I wanted to give you this link, about the passing away of one of my favorite painters of the 20th century, Lucian Freud and to re-post my Artist of the Week feature in this this post.

Lucian Freud

1922-2011

Bumper Sticker Sighting

 Hey, all! Just a note to let you know that my mother is visiting from Portugal until 6 July so I'll be tied up 'till then and may not be able to get to blogs or answer email as promptly as usual. Happy Summer Solstice!

 Spotted at The Strolling of the Heifers parade and Slow Living Summit in Brattleboro, Vermont.  That's me in the reflection and the slogan isn't too far from autobiographical, either!

Keeping in Touch

As you may know, my heart's not in the blog lately. But it is very much with your  blogs. If I'm not putting an hour into an art post these days, I'm trying to visit blogs more frequently. My blogging mood is currently quiet, but just because I didn't leave a comment, doesn't mean I didn't see your post.  :-) 

I don't have much to offer, just a few photos of my yard where I've been resting more than usual these days due to my injured back. After re-injuring the tight muscles on Thursday (just minutes after a professional massage, interestingly) I am today, I hope, well on my way to full recovery. I went to work today, even wore my new groovy wedgie shoes (Becky, did you get yours yet? ;-) and the day went well. It was a beautiful, mostly sunny spring day, too. A bit gusty but everyone at school from toddlers to teachers was in a good mood. Personally, due to the week and a half of back problems, this is the first spring-like day I've enjoyed so far.


Thank you so much to those of you who left encouraging and positive comments. They really helped to make this bad spell pass more easily. And to a couple of new followers who recently left comments, my apologies for the dole drums. 

View of the Connecticut River from our front yard

And the forsythia that has finally begun to bloom.

Love and Peace,

Pagan Sphinx

Blog Note

My back is still in spasm mode and I am into my third day off from work. I actually left school around noon on Thursday. Three and a half days out of work! I never do that. I think that tomorrow I will try to go to work, see the physical therapist, try to beat down the door of my favorite but very busy neuromuscular massage therapist whom my insurance company won't cover. I think tomorrow is the day I start trying to live among the living again. The lack of comfortable mobility is driving me crazy.

I'm having trouble concentrating on reading anything longer than article length. If you have any entertaining or informative links to share, please leave them in comments or email me at pagansphinx@gmail.com. Anything humorous? Bring it on.


 I love this series Suzanne Vega has where she discusses what her songs are about and what they meant her when she wrote them.  Below is one for the song Men in a War.  I hope you can view it where you are and if not, I'm sorry! One day I will invest in a real blogspot jukebox. For now my Baby Dinosaur laptop used as a desktop computer, will have to do.

I really hope you're having a wonderful day. Sending love,

Pagan Sphinx

P.S. There are probably errors left and right in this post. Sorry, but it's time for me to sit up and hobble around the house for a while.  :-D

Untitled

 I am currently in a blogging slump with a touch of emotional flu. I will see you when I am more inspired.

Love, peace and groovy things,

Pagan Sphinx

Ruby Tuesday Travels Back in Time

I was inspired by Ralph of Airhead 55 (out of Connecticut), who often posts photos from his childhood and of his own children. Thanks, Ralph!  Here are The Girls going for a walk up a country road.  The one in white is the older sister, but by only sixteen months! This was taken in Spring of '92. They were three and four. Now they are twenty-two and twenty-three.  Yikes.

" We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it. "

~George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 1860

What's been going on with all of you? How did February decide to treat you?
Fondly, PS

To see other Ruby Tuesday participants, click here

Blog Note to Readers

I'm currently having trouble leaving comments on a lot of Blogger blogs. I don't know why but it appears that if the blog setting for comments is to have them embedded below the post, it doesn't automatically show that I'm signed into blogger and there is no other option in the drop-down menu for leaving a comment. It's frustrating and I don't know what to do about it.

I want to you know that if I haven't left a comment, I've been there and it's this problem that's preventing me from letting you know I've visited. Violet Sky, Aguja and Singing Bear are bloggers who come to mind on whose blogs I am having trouble. If it doesn't matter to you one way or another, perhaps you could change your comments settings to "pop up" instead to see if that makes a difference?

Thanks!

Peace and Love,
Pagan Sphinx

An Apology

I want to tell all of you who commented on the post below how sorry I am that I caused you to try to justify your style of commenting. I appreciate how kind you all were in doing so. I wish I could say the same for myself. I know where my buttons were pushed and by whom and that person has only visited this blog once and left a comment. So why I decided to make it an issue by presenting it to all of you, I'm still trying to figure out.

I don't usually have "requirements" for comments. I see after re-reading my post and your comments, just how teachy and preachy and bitchy I came across in it. I am sorry and I hope you will forgive me. Not to make excuses but I've observed from outside of myself a lot of irritability and some intollerence toward others. I'm not sure if a depression is creeping in again or if it's a change-of-life issue or a combination of both. I have so much to make me happy and proud and I am so grateful for so many things. It's as if someone else wrote that post. I feel that way sometimes when I catch myself being impatient with others. "Was that me? Did I really say that?"  I know that no one is perfect, especially me and I am not trying to beat myself up here. I just want you to know that I'm aware of it. Maybe it was good, in some ways, that I wrote that post because re-reading something is often more helpful than trying to recall what it was I said in a interpersonal exchange. In the latter, there is always the tendency to say "Well, it takes two people to cause tension". In the case of the post, it took only one:  me. So maybe some self-awareness came out of it and I can forgive myself and move on and try harder the next time to be patient and accepting. The first step in doing so is to acknowledge the situation and hope that you, my cherised online friends, will forgive me for behaving so poorly.

Please tell me what you think and don't expect for a moment that I'm waiting for anyone to let me off the hook on this one!

P.S. I feel like I led some of  you to think that it's the brevity of a comment that I have a hard time with and that's not really it. It's about one person who simply stated they didn't like it. They are entitled to that opinion and yet it bugged me because I had put so much work into the post. I think it is I who is taking things too personally. Again, I am so sorry.

Love and Peace,
Pagan Sphinx

Blogging Notes

Comments on Art Posts

I want to share with you my feelings about comments on my art posts. This isn't meant to be taken by anyone personally, of my regular readers because I think you mostly are able to read through the lines and figure out a little bit about how I think and how I blog. Occasionally, I'll get really depressed over "drive-by" commenting. I get very few of those on "regular" Pagan Sphinx posts. But when I participate in photo "memes", which I love to do and post them to this blog because they relate to art or art history, I get the occasional "I don't like it" comment. Or the occasional " this is great". I want people to tell me why. Is that selfish of me? If you hate it, say why! That offends me much less, if you get my drift. I'll admit that my feeling is that if you're gonna leave a "drive-by" comment, the least you can do is be nice.  ;-)  If you can't be nice, click off! In the rare instance where blogging brings me somewhere I don't want to be, I click off. Isn't that the beauty of the electronic age social networks? 

What Does "Say why" Mean?

Whatever you want it to say!  I'm not a high-brow type! I know as much about art as a bright tenth grader!  :-)
Trust your immediate reaction and tell me why! If what you feel It's disgust, say it. If you are shocked, good! If you love that little splotch of globbie red with black outlines in the corner of the canvas, perfect.

 Any painting is an invitation to look. Two seconds or two hours. We can each decide for ourselves.

Give it a try with this work. I'll go first:  I like several details such as the manufactured tear from the eye and the "bowling pin" leg on the chair but trying to put it all together is a bit of a challenge!  :-)  The turquoise and red frame with the inner yellow is pretty. It has a primitive look. I wondered if Picasso liked this. :-)

Paul Klee

Pagan Sphinx Blog Design

A friend of the blog recently sent me a message that she finds the font colors and backgrounds hard to read. I'd like to know if anyone else is experiencing this. I've had more than a couple of complaints about the comments window format, but this is a first for the blog colors. If you have any suggestions for improving this, please let me know.

And speaking of the comments box, which do you prefer:  the embedded or the pop-up versions?

And so as not to leave abruptly, I hope you are having a good Sunday. It's clear and very chilly here. I'm going for a walk and coming in to have turkey soup for lunch.  I'm not much of a cook but I love to make soup and stew in the winter!

Love and Peace,

Pagan Sphinx