Beware the Ides of March!

So said Julius Caesar’s soothsayer (according to Shakespeare) and he was right on. Caesar was assassinated on March 15th.

I had a friend whose birthday was on March 15th and as the day approached she would always quote Caesar’s soothsayer. Not sure what I was supposed to make of it…

Today was a beautiful snowy day, not at all gloomy, but the Ides of March was on my mind.

And this was what I made:

Just a little bit creepy maybe?

That’s it for today.

Let’s start at the bottom – shoes –

My mother had lots of pairs of shoes (not quite as many as the 3000 Imelda Marcos, the infamous former First Lady of the Philippines was said to have had).

When my mother got older, her feet got bad and she couldn’t wear most of her shoes anymore. Being a fashion plate, she was sad but resigned.

My grandma had bad feet too and the only shoes I ever saw her wear were called “space shoes”. They were molded to fit her feet and were very ugly but practical. They enabled her to walk.

I love shoes too but bunions limit my choices these days, alas.

Today’s post I’m calling “my early childhood through shoes”. Odd I know but I have to start somewhere. I’ll get to my paper dolls eventually.

When I was a young child my mother bought me Buster Brown shoes from the shoe store down the block. So exciting to be buying a new pair of shoes – usually in the fall for the start of the school year.

The Buster Brown Shoe Company got its start at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and became one of the leading makers of children’s shoes for decades.

One time when I was maybe six years old I had plantar’s warts on the bottom of my feet. My mother took me to the podiatrist to have them removed. Afterwards as a reward for my suffering she took me to the shoe store and bought me a new pair of Mary Janes. Unfortunately my foot hadn’t healed yet and I bled into my new shoes.

There actually was a novel written in 1975 called “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up” about growing up Catholic on Chicago’s South side. It was made into a musical in 1984. It seems that patent leather shoes had great resonance in our American culture in the 1950’s and 60’s especially. Now you can get Doc Martens style Mary Janes, very fashionable.

Then there was there were the Ked’s sneakers.

Growing up with a twin brother I got to have daily experience of the difference between what girls and boys were supposed to wear, the way they were expected to behave, and how they were treated.

Back to my Keds…My mother bought me the kind of sneakers with rounded toes because she thought they were better for my feet.

One day when I was in fifth grade, on the playground in the housing development I grew up in, I saw a group of girls I was hoping to befriend.

I went up to join them but was rebuffed by a “We don’t play with girls who wear round toed sneakers, pointy toed sneakers are better.” Ouch! My first fashion humiliation.

And when I was a little older, let’s not forget saddle shoes to go with “bobby socks” and “poodle skirts” oh my.

Well that’s more than enough about footwear during my childhood. This endeavor could become much bigger than I had at first imagined. I better reign myself in and focus. Maybe I’ll do better tomorrow.

Remember I said I had two bigger projects I was procrastinating on getting started with? Well I scaled one down so it might be manageable and fun.

Do you remember paper dolls? I used to love to play with them. Looking back I realize how they were used to pass down our nineteen fifties and sixties American values, culture and “norms“ about appearance and gender.

There are still Barbie paper dolls, Madeline paper dolls, Queen Elizabeth paper dolls, Princess Di, vintage, and “literary greats” paper dolls…even Donald Trump paper dolls. Some of them are articulated, making them almost puppets. I had no idea they were still so popular.

I’m a clothes hound. I love to dress up. When I was in college one of my most favorite courses was costume design.

So why not make a set of paper dolls and dress them up in all different ways; play around with clothing and accessories and how they relate to gender identity and sexuality, a topic that has been much on my mind of late.

This project is still gestating in my brain so I don’t have anything to show for it yet but hopefully tomorrow.

Here are a few of my get ups anyway-

Good night.

Feeling meditative today. Here are a few places I like to go in my meditations.

Click on photos for better view.

Or

Maybe closer to home?

Or I can just stay home.

Ohmmmmmmmmmmm……………

Today I was perusing some boxes of black and white photos taken long ago with my old Canon AE1 SLR camera. I thought you all might be interested in seeing them. I had to scan them into my computer and they came out very grainy and somewhat blurry but I think you will still be able to enjoy them.They come with a story about a certain period in my life.

But first…I want to add one photo that should have gone with my puppets in Prague post but I needed the parents’ permission before posting it. Permission granted and here it is.

Now back to my theme of today. When I was first starting out in my career as a sign language interpreter my mentor was very involved in working with DeafBlind people and she drew me in. Always having been a person who takes in the world tactilely and kinesthetically it was a good match for me.

“DeafBlind” doesn’t necessarily mean having no hearing or sight (in fact that is fairly rare) so DeafBlind people comprise a very small population with a great variety of combinations of hearing and visual loss and onset of those losses; and therefore communication needs and experience of the world. I knew one young woman who was born totally deaf and blind. She had her own unique sense of the world. Another older woman who had lost both her sight and hearing later in life knew the world as a hearing, sighted person would. These two women lived in two completely different worlds.

Some DeafBlind people whose first language is English use fingerspelling in the hand (like Helen Keller) or print on the palm, or even braille. Others who grew up Deaf and became blind or visually impaired as an adult may use tactile American Sign Language. There are many other communication methods as well. The one thing everyone had in common was a desire for communication and participation in the world around them.

As an interpreter not only did I need to find a way to communicate the linguistic environment but also the physical environment, and often I acted as a sighted guide as well. It was fascinating work. Exhausting but fun. We had social gatherings and outings where we went roller skating, tandem bicycling, boating, dancing and of course eating. There were national conferences and camps for DeafBlind people and once I attended an international DeafBlind convention. That was an experience. There were so many different communication techniques in different languages happening all around me. Different countries have different sign languages, it is not universal, but there is an international lingo (like Esperanto only much more successful) called Gestuno that Deaf people from different countries can use to communicate with each other at least in a basic way.

I was so moved by DeafBlind people’s resilience, joie de vivre and desire to form deep friendships as well as their incredible patience with others and determination to navigate the world no matter what. Truly inspiring.

Here are some photos of DeafBlind friends of mine. The first few were taken at a “living museum” a recreation of a village in the Wild West. We went there on a field trip during a national DeafBlind convention.

Here are some photos of my friend Janet who grew up hard of hearing and started losing her vision as a young adult.

Hands are the major sensors for DeafBlind people to communicate and to experience the world.

That’s it for today.

Today’s post will be short and sweet. Not feeling up for much.

For some reason the saying “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” popped into my head. I like the image but find the adage a little distressing just because it makes me think of hunting somehow, predator-prey. Also I don’t think many birds would want to be held in someone’s hands – unless they were injured or tame and trained to do so.

I have held Saw-whet owls who had been banded and were about to be released. Quite an experience to hold and release a wild bird.

So first I looked up the phrase. One source says it comes from Ecclesiastes. Here is the complete verse: “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. Seen in this light, a bird in the hand is worth much more than two in the bush, if only you don’t strangle it.”

Oh my.

It was also used in medieval falconry: “This proverb has its origins in medieval falconry, where a bird (falcon) in hand was more valuable than two in the bush (the prey). The earliest known usage in English is in the 15th century in “The Life of St Katherine” by John Capgrave.”

Okay…

So better to keep what you have (the known?) than to risk it for the unknown.

Not so sure about that but…

I decided to be literal, and to replace “bird” with dragonfly, butterfly and moth as you will see…

Addendum: Bryan says it’s a Female Stream Cruiser. Nice name!

“…are worth more than two (birds this time) in a bush.“

Well they’re not exactly in a bush but close enough. I certainly like them better that way than in a hand.

So I noticed that a number of MAM artists have been describing their creative process in their posts. That’s not my thing but I thought maybe you would like to get a glimpse of how I made a marionette during the marionette building workshop I took in Prague, along with a mini-travelogue while I’m at it.

When I applied to be in the workshop I had to submit three drawings of designs for marionettes that I wanted to build. We were going to build and perform a play of the story of Sleeping Beauty.

Here are my designs.

They chose the jester for me to build which was great because it was my favorite.

This is the hostel we stayed at- very comfortable, reasonable and a short walk from the workshop

The workshop was all day long. Very intensive. Every morning after an early breakfast we walked from the hostel to the workshop down one of the many beautiful old cobblestones streets.

Unfortunately the city was constantly digging up and replacing the cobblestones.

We made traditional Czech marionettes all carved out of wood. I had never done any wood carving before so it was an incredible challenge.

First we had to draw and measure all the parts of the puppet we were making.

Then we started carving from blocks of basswood. I was used to soft sculpture and papier mache where you start with a core and build on it. With carving you start with a block and cut away.

Here are some puppet parts after being carved.

I got lots of help from skilled Czech woodcarvers which was great because I never could have done it on my own.

After we carved the puppet parts we had to make the joints to put them together and make sure they could move properly. That was another challenging task. We used power tools to create the joints. Again you had to make really exact measurements.

Next was the painting and then the costuming. There was a wonderful fabrics and notions store not far from the workshop. I could have spent hours there but there was no time for that. I showed the salesperson my drawing for the jester and she helped me choose fabrics and notions for the costume. Had to have all those little bells.

We had professional marionette costumers assist us with the costuming as well.

And here is the jester all finished.

Here are some of the other marionettes that were built for the performance.

We did have some time on the weekends to hang out and participate in one of the Czech peoples’ favorite pastimes – drinking “pivo”. Beer!

We took the subway to get to the tavern. It was shiny new and very efficient.

When we were finished making our marionettes we spent two weeks rehearsing “Sleeping Beauty” and then we performed for a week at a park that had a big arts festival.

We didn’t have much time for sightseeing during the workshop but we took a few “field trips”, one to a puppet museum. The Czech people have a long history and tradition of marionettes.

After our last performance I had a week left in Prague to do some sightseeing but I’ll show you those photos another time. The workshop was a wonderful experience for me and Prague is a beautiful, magical city. I hope to go back some day.

Today is International Women’s Day so I thought it might be nice to mark the occasion. But how?

I love photographing trees and many of them feel so womanly to me; especially the ones with holes and knots and curves. So here are some womanly trees in honor of International Women’s’ Day.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Wow! One week into MAM. Moving right along. Today is a day for reflection…

Also trying to organize my photos – another Herculean organizing task.

It might be best depending on what you are using to view this post (I use my iPad) to hold it vertically so you can see each photo all at once on your screen instead of having to scroll to see it.

Here goes…

At one of my favorite hidden gems of a small pond which abound in central Vermont. I’m not going to tell you where it is. It’s my secret.

Seen from my porch.

At the Adamant quarry.

Now let’s get more urban.

Now for something really strange…

This one is not exactly a reflection but sort of so thought I could slip it in. (Could be seen as three reflections.)

Last but not least I always seem to have to slip a selfie into my posts.

And that’s quite enough reflecting for now.

Today I’m reposting a post I made last year. That is because tonight is the start of the Jewish holiday of Purim and I want to mark the occasion. I hope those who saw my post last year won’t mind and maybe even will enjoy seeing it again. Tradition!

Purim is the holiday where we read the biblical story of Esther and how she saved the Jewish people from destruction (once again). It is a joyful holiday with costumes and carousing. I always think of it as a Mardí Gras like celebration in a cold and often gray month. But when Purim arrives I know that Spring is not far behind.

Of course there are aspects of the story I struggle with – concepts of good and evil, capital punishment, the glorifying of revenge; but that is my way of engaging with my religion – to wrestle with the texts and stories, question them, challenge the assumptions; and try to find a way to understand and connect on a deeper spiritual level.

The story is hand scribed in Hebrew on a scroll called a Megillah which is stored in a decorative case. This is the case I made for the Megillah scroll at our synagogue. It uses Yemenite Jewish decorative motifs. The Megillah scroll is taken out once a year in the synagogue on Purim to be read out loud in the original Hebrew and sometimes in English as well.

Below are shadow puppets I made to dramatize the story of Esther. I don’t have a video of the actual puppet play so I am posting still photos of the puppet scenes.

Disclaimer- Some people have objected to my use of stereotypes of good and evil characters and of beauty vs. ugliness. I understand the objection but had decided when creating the shadow play to use traditional imagery and characterizations in my puppet portrayals. The story is supposed to have taken place in Persia around 479 B.C.

THE END!

HAPPY PURIM!