the forbidden colors
..warriors of Huaa tribe paint their faces into a rainbow before a battle. The night before shaman reads the sky and forbids them to use certain colours, because it would make them vulnerable to wounds and death. However, if they use the forbidden colours and defeat the enemy, they acquire the highest status in the tribe... ............................................................................ Apothecary jars and heavy mortars protected me since the first day. The world was huge and fit snugly in the palm of my hand. Between the cascade of my grandmother's ivy and the sunny windowsill everything was possible ............................................................................. Snow was coming heavier in winter. I kept breaking the ice only to find more shards. They were deeper every year. I lost few things in a frozen lake never to see them again. Spontaneous summers occurred and snake seasons continued. Tropical thunder came and went with lush abundance. Swampy waters flooded frequently. Steel began to rust and our shoes were moldy but we survived another year ............................................................................. Constant humming of ocean washing the sand away and leaving the debris. Last visions before dawn. Promises made to a wet pillow. Acid clouds burning inside me. I tried to free myself burning candles, capture hope or ask for forgiveness with faded petals or sulphur. Squeaky cogs kept going day and night, sometimes exploding with a broken spring or hissing and melting away quietly. I kept ghosts at bay most of the time .............................................................................. Children were moving through leaving behind their colorful wrappings, words we haven't heard before and an odd teddy bear. Animals were generous with their droppings, shed skins and midnight squeaks. Meteors sent their blessings. Birds hid in the waterfall of fragrant jasmine. We collected their empty nests. Screws and washers in jars. Shoeboxes under beds. We piled up books, tools, paintings, gemstones and driftwood, thinking we will stay another millennium. We wrapped secrets in jeans and hid deceit under a pillow but the cracks got wider. They kept crumbling apart and we had to leave with a suitcase ............................................................................. I summon the spirits now and reluctantly they come. I grow moss in gaps between the walls and often forget my daily prayers. Memory tastes metallic. The forbidden colours I used to paint with, tarnished and oxidized like patina on the pestle that keeps on grinding. But the time is running out we have to find that door ............................................................................................................................................................ so welcome to my blog - these are the windows to be grateful for that I discover every day, there is a passage to the other side somewhere, but I haven't found it yet .............................................................................. ............................................................................... ..............................................................................
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seattle theme by parker ehret
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Zhang Daqian, Buddha’s Manifestation of Joyfulness, 1946. Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper.
Watercolor
by Jean Haines
Carl Spitzweg:Der eingeschlafene Nachtwächter,1875
John Sloan, Tittering Girls, 1915
John Sloan, Clown Making Up, 1910
From the Phillips Collection:
Clown Making Up displays the vigorous brushwork of Sloan’s early style and also reveals his intensified interest in color theory—the result of experimentation with principles to which Robert Henri had introduced him in 1909. For Clown Making Up, Sloan limited the palette to purple, yellow-orange, and green. The flickering candlelight casts green, not gray, shadows on the tired clown’s face and garb, evidence not only of Sloan’s interest in the color of shadows, but also of his use of chiaroscuro (dramatic contrasts between light and darkness) to heighten the sculptural quality of the figure. Set within a shallow, stage-like setting, the clown is pushed to the front of the picture plane by loosely defined shapes suggesting a circus tent. Sloan chose to depict the clown just as he was starting to apply his makeup, thus concentrating on the human being behind the façade.
Duncan Phillips, whose early taste in art included narratives and romantic subjects, was undoubtedly attracted to the intimate quality of Clown Making Up. He acquired it in 1919, and later interpreted it in A Collection in the Making as the depiction of a “lonely individual caught in the maelstrom—the tired old clown, who must be funny, ‘making up’ his haggard face by candle-light in some dusty dressing room…”
Happy Birthday to you, Paul Gauguin!
Today marks the 164th anniversary of the birth of this leading French Post-Impressionist artist.
We are excited to have one of his work highlight our Impressionist/Modern Art Evening sale on June 20th.Paul Gauguin
Paysage Aux Troncs Bleus
Oil on Canvas
Painted in 1892This is a recently rediscovered painting dating from Gauguin’s historic trip to Tahiti.
Happy birthday to Gauguin, born 164 years ago today!
![lyghtmylife:
Edward Atkinson Hornel
[Scottish Painter, 1864-1933]
Autumn, 1888
oil on canvas
Private collection](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5h590fwK81r29g9xo1_500.jpg)
[Scottish Painter, 1864-1933]
Autumn, 1888
oil on canvas
Private collection
Andrew Wyeth
… . . On the eve of his birthday, July 12th.
